SA ambassador opposes UN ‘rape as war weapon’ resolution
I was disconcerted to read in the Sunday Times this weekend that South Africa has led an effort in the UN General Assembly to block a draft resolution condemning states that use rape as a weapon of war...
View ArticleZuma adds to national depression
Adding to the national depression is the news that the president of the ANC and the putative next president of our country, Jacob Zuma, has approached the courts of a fellow SADC member, Mauritius,...
View ArticleChampion Chief Justice Langa
Top marks to South Africa’s Chief Justice Pius Langa for coming in to bat for the independence of the media and the important role the judiciary can play in this regard. Last Sunday he said that the...
View ArticleSA civil society triumphs
Amidst all the gloom and doom nowadays, one or two bright spots stand out. Firstly, whatever one thinks of the ANC’s new team, Polokwane demonstrated that democracy is alive and well in our...
View ArticleProposed process for disciplining judges may be unconstitutional
Judges have got their knickers in a knot over the Judicial Services Commission Amendment Bill now before the NCOP – so much so that the Judicial Services Commission (“JSC”) made an extensive and...
View ArticleThe big question
The big question coming out of all the centres of refuge for “foreigners” displaced by xenophobic violence in and around police stations, civic centres and churches is where do we go from here? What...
View ArticleChild victims’ case cries out for Victims Fund
No case illustrates better the pressing need for a fund specifically to compensate and assist victims of crime than that of nine township children, allegedly sexually abused by German immigrant Werner...
View ArticleCape Town and the Obamas
The hullabaloo around the award of the Freedom of the City to the Obamas (now accepted) reminds me of that remarkable day in September 2006 when then senator Barack Obama addressed a packed meeting at...
View ArticleSA art at Venice Biennale makes me proud
On a recent visit to Venice I was really impressed by the new South African pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale. Having read about it I tracked it down, prepared to be critical because of the scandal...
View ArticleSheila Camerer: My fond memories of Madiba
This sad day brought to mind several personal encounters I had with the Great Man in the 1990s that demonstrate his very special humanity and human kindness: I remember when I was sworn in as a deputy...
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