So far, it doesn’t look like the attack on Kader Asmal’s car in Durban was politically motivated, or has anything to do with the wave of pre-election violence that’s been plaguing the province. That in itself is a good thing.
Still, it’s a graphic reminder that crime in this country is still a big problem. The [...]

“We cannot even find enough bulletproof vests to protect our own police at home, and yet we are spending millions of rands, on top of the R25-million we have already spent, to send bullet-proof vests to protect the rogue regime of Jean-Bertrand Aristide” – Tony Leon

Jim Henley thinks that Ralph Nader may running as an Independent rather than a Green in a deliberate attempt to avoid a repeat of his his Bush-boosting performance in swing states in 2000:
Did Nader ditch the Green Party so that he would stay off the ballot in select large battleground states?… Maybe this is why [...]

Searching on the Internet can sometimes be a frustrating affair. Despite search engines, like enjoying increasing innovation, most of us have experienced irritation at the inability to find what we want. That’s when search engines just can’t seem to bring up that page we once visited or what we’re looking for, but which we know [...]

is fast becoming one of my favourite weblog reads after stumbling across his address on particularly for his well written focus on Africa that I find myself agreeing with.
Hison Friday in particular is simultaneously both slightly amusing and sanguine in its summary of the issue.

What a stupid piece of analysis this is. Gross himself admits that “comparing the Prius and the Hummer is like comparing apples and oranges”, and that “the sales drop [of the Hummer] reflects simple common sense”. And yet somehow, he can’t resist trying make it all about ideology; the Hummer represents Republican values such as [...]

As the quote goes, ‘There are only two things certain in life – death and taxes’.
The first one is unfortunately inevitable, the second one though can be reduced or managed – and is part of the problems with the human condition of governments. Essentially one because governments tax laws and collection methods are almost always [...]

The latest edition of the Economist carried a news in brief report on the South African Government’s spending, specifically on the increase in spending on combatting HIV/AIDS.
It noted that the spending was R2.1 billion allocated over the course of three years, and not all in the current financial year. I didn’t pick this up at [...]

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has lost her seat in Parliament. This is pretty much the end of her political career. She still retains her presidency of the ANC Women’s League, but that position gives little in the way of real power, and in any case, she probably won’t be able to hold onto it for much longer.
Any [...]

Something in Tony Leon’s latest missive caught my eye:

Minister Kader Asmal has been boosting his profile by inflating the matric results. He told the country that 73,3 percent of matric pupils had passed their exams. But the South African Teachers’ Union recently revealed that the pass rate for all registered matric learners was only 58 [...]

What’s the deal with this election and poster vandalism? A quick scan of the headlines seems to indicate that this becoming a growing issue. Both the DA and the ANC are whining about having their posters vandalised, and making not-so-subtle noises about other parties being behind it.
I’m curious about whether this sort of thing is [...]