Covid-19 and its lockdowns are destroying restaurants, cafés, pubs and shops all over South Africa. And iconic, historic York Road at Surfers Corner, Muizenberg, could go next. It’s time to save York Road by closing it to traffic. Turn it into a people place. No cars. No trucks. No motor bikes. No parking on the […]
The great Struggle journalist, Max du Preez, founded South Africa’s fabled anti-apartheid newspaper Vrye Weekblad back in 1998 and revived it in 2019 as Vrye Weekblad Online. He recently wrote an article deploring eNCA TV’s suspension of two of its most experienced anchor/presenters and quoted me. Here’s Max’s article: Yesterday, @XoliMngambi and @JaneDutton made an […]
Dear Friends, Comrades, Colleagues, I know you haven’t asked, but thought I’d get ahead of the curve and report that I’m in great shape, mentally and physically — although approaching my prime with unseemly haste I wake to the thrum and thunder of Atlantic surf on the beach outside my window. I check that the aches […]
It’s the mid-sixties. I’m 27 and have already survived reporting on anti-apartheid revolts and the Sharpeville funeral in South Africa, insurrections in Zambia, and three years and two bloody wars in the Congo. So I fly to America (Richard Nixon, Prop.) to find out if I can play the game with the big boys. With […]
Don North was a war correspondent. A bang-bang man, up there with the very best of that elite breed. He came out of Vancouver, worked at CTV, Global and CBC in Canada, and ABC, CBS and NBC in New York. He reported from more wars and insurrections than most of us can name or remember. […]
My old friend Morgan Freeman has just won the American Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) Life Achievement award for his work in movies and — even more impressive — his humanitarian accomplishments. The prestigious award is given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession.” Learning how to be still, […]
So swiftly that not even the most prescient of us heard the distant thunder of their hooves, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have galloped into our lives . Their names are Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un and Bashar al-Assad. Together this megalomaniacal foursome — just like the Horsemen in the Book of Revelations — […]
Some 220 years ago the British defeated the Dutch in the battle of Muizenberg and seized the Cape Colony for their king across the water. It was really more of a skirmish than a battle. Just a couple of soldiers killed. Even so, the battle of Muizenberg was a hugely important event in this country — […]
A man I taught to write wins a Pulitzer Prize for journalism a while back and dies just this week. The Puitzer is for newspaper commentaries “ … which consistently champion ordinary citizens.” This man wins the Pulitzer because be writes about ordinary women and men — people like you and me — as if […]