How does a municipal structure in place for decades get broken with abandon? Is it a process? What breaks first that is deemed not important enough to fix? The abysmal current state of Pretoria Art Museum is a crying shame to its proud, polished history. It feels as though the best solution is to shut […]

So I woke up yesterday morning after our traditional New Year’s Day “Bugger All”. This is where we sleep as late as possible, move as little as possible, eat leftovers and try to remember why a 3am bedtime after the age of 40 is ever a good idea. I checked Facebook for news, pokes and jokes and discovered […]

Almost everyone on my Facebook has been asking the same question: how did the #ZumaMustFallMarch become about race? Isn’t it clear that the current president is bad news for the country? Jacob Zuma – the person and the president, the body that is depicted visually and the figure that is related to politically – is […]

There’s a weird thing happening in South Africa. Well, to be fair, there’s a lot of weird sh@# going down. But I’d like to focus in on the niche weirdness of white, upper-class parents in SA at this point in time. And their seemingly unchecked yet (in my opinion) unbalanced rhetoric: “We’re really thinking about […]

Banana Republic. Failed state. Another Zimbabwe. An Arab Spring-type revolution. Perhaps we should just slit our wrists before the year is out. What nonsense. If we want to survive 2016 in one piece, we will have to cast off this paralysing, dark pessimism. It’s going to be a rough year with many social and political […]

Anyone who has just got back to South Africa will quickly notice several things: the prices (good), the weather (fantastic), the politics (volatile), the protests (increasing). And, of course, then there’s the driving (shocking). In less than two months back in the country, after moving from New York, I’ve seen drivers… speeding at 100km/hr in 60km/hr zones, overtaking on white lines, zigzagging […]

I suffer from depression. These are some of the hardest words to say out loud. They may appear like just another utterance but in essence they are part of a journey that entails wallowing in the depths, a journey where “normal” is often illusive. Depression is an ailment. And like all other ailments it transcends […]

With the year coming to an end, people are preparing for the holiday season. Because of its cultural diversity and colonial history, South Africa shares a lot of holidays with other countries. And it appears that South Africans do enjoy foreign festivities, because every year more events seem to be celebrated – aside from religious holidays like […]

And so we discovered that our very own Great Man of Africa has feet of clay. Jacob Zuma’s legendary invincibility was dealt a fatal blow on Sunday when his own party comrades and a wave of popular resistance forced him to overturn his own very important decision of just four days before. His opponents in […]

After having worked for years in Africa, I have come to believe it is one of the places in which the world of tomorrow is being incubated. Most of the stereotypes I had in mind 13 years ago when I began travelling across the continent proved to be wrong. What I discovered is that Africa […]

Justice Malala’s book, “We Have Now Begun Our Descent: How to Stop South Africa Losing its Way”, does a number of things well. It reclaims the space for a particular kind of conversation among successful but ordinary South Africans – those who are not radical or particularly steeped in the eloquent and sometimes exclusionary new […]

On a sunny afternoon in 1986, a young boy in a Soweto in upheaval as the struggle against apartheid intensified, turned on the TV, threw himself on the couch and hoped the soccer game would be worth watching. But the TV was tuned into the channel broadcasting the rugby match between Northern Transvaal and Eastern Province. […]

For the second time this year, I spent a week in Western Australia doing some consulting work for an Australian retail client. TIME AWAY FROM SOUTH AFRICA IS WONDERFUL. Apart from the obvious joys of international travel, time away allows you to get an alternative perspective of your home country that’s all to often clouded […]

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by what has happened in Paris, you’re not alone. In the aftermath of the attacks on Friday evening, many are finding it hard to figure out what has happened and, indeed, where all this is going. The media has barely taken a moment to breathe. In the last few days there have been French reprisal attacks against […]

Talking to foreign fund managers about South Africa is sobering. I spent last week doing that in New York. Billions of dollars that were directed into our shares and bonds over the past two decades are being pulled out. The only fund managers who are smiling are those that have gone short on South African assets, […]

One South African woman’s recollections of Friday night’s tragedy in Paris is being shared around the world. Over 2 million people have ‘liked’ Isobel Bowdery’s message on Facebook (including FB’s own Mark Zuckerberg); and newspapers from the UK to Australia have published her story and photo of the bloodied shirt she was wearing. Isobel who seems […]

I am probably a few hours too late to express how I feel about what happened in Paris but I feel that it is important to address this issue and that is an indication that this matter cannot be overlooked in any way. I woke up this morning to the news of the attack on […]

It’s said that behind every powerful language is an army and money. Consider the case of English. In South Africa, as in its other colonies, the British arrived with the Bible in one hand and the breech-loader in the other. Behind them was the English language, military might and money. British missionaries wanted to convert […]

Sometimes when you read those comments on Facebook or news sites that sound so negative, you imagine a mean-spirited person, another troll trying to make other people’s lives hell. But if you look closer, sometimes that person loves South Africa as much as you do. Sometimes that person is just hurting so much… Yesterday an SAPeople follower […]

Every now and then I get reminded of how different I am from many South Africans – despite the fact that I am South African and have been living here for over 20 years…pretty much all my life. So, yes, I am Asian, but I am not from China as many locals assume just because […]

The ecologist and author Craig Packer has spent 30 years researching the overhunting of lions in Africa and is deeply pessimistic about their future. Here he talks about dishonest hunting operators, the urgent need for global money, why he takes issue with animal groups – and what we’ve learned from Cecil. Craig Packer likes sticking […]

Twenty-one year old BUSI SKINN’E MJIYAKHO caught a lot of people’s attention with her three letters to black people, white people and the South African government back in April. Now she’s back with two powerful letters – to white and black people – that have been shared thousands of times on social media. The University of […]

University of Cape Town (UCT) student ALASTAIR DURING was amongst the crowd of students who clashed with police yesterday. Here he shares his lessons learnt… What I learnt at Parliament yesterday…by Alastair During Parliament has shitty security. It’s harder to break into my parents’ house. The police were more violent than the protesters. Stun grenades […]

There is something unmistakably common in Africa: the continent’s ageing and long-serving presidents. Its five longest presidencies stretch between 29 and 36 years, adding to a cumulative 169 years. Their longevity in office is matched by their old age, ranging from 71 to 92 years, and a combined 392 years. Gabon’s Omar Bongo had been […]

What if we won the Rugby World Cup? I would guess that question has been asked many times in the last few decades. The interesting thing is that we have actually shown the world on a few occasions that we can be a nation of winners! Yes, we have actually won and defied many sceptics in the process. […]