Ouch, they have taxpayers by the . . .
If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow – US president Theodore Roosevelt apocryphally said to Douglas MacArthur in 1906.
Aakash Bramdeo is a former colleague from e.tv news who moved on to the SABC before being offered the editorship of Post in Durban — which was the newspaper which published my first story back in 1980. Before accepting the job, Aakash picked my brain as to what he could do to make the paper relevant to a wider readership. "Get a columnist who reflects the audience you're trying to attract," I said.
Shortly after accepting the position of editor, Aakash called me and asked, "when can you start?"
"View from the Top" ran in Post every week from 1 May 2011 to 9 April 2014 (which coincided with Aakash's departure from Post to edit the Sunday Tribune).
If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow – US president Theodore Roosevelt apocryphally said to Douglas MacArthur in 1906.
The world has been abuzz since the weekend over the death of our country's greatest son.
‘All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth…’ My mother has been singing that ditty to my six-year-old daughter for the past while – she who has begun shedding her milk teeth and collecting rewards under her pillow.
Good things come to an end; bad things have to be stopped. I'm not sure where I first heard that expression but it has been top of mind for me as 2013 drew to a close.
Dear matriculants.
You’ve survived 12 years of school. Congratulations. Now, the pressure is on. What are you going to do with the rest of your life?
Many pivotal moments in history resulted from single innocuous events.
Seduced by a prince named Paris, Helen of Sparta fled with him to his native land. This led Helen’s husband Menelaus to declare war on Troy, effectively wiping them out.
It was all going so splendidly: Bafana Bafana drew 1-1 with Morocco, then beat Swaziland 3-0, beat world champions Spain 1-0, beat Mozambique 3-1, and drew 1-1 against Mali.
Then our national team tanked, going down 1-3 to Nigeria.
What went wrong?
Just last week, the media sphere was abuzz with speculation that Agang SA, the fledgling political movement launched by Dr Mamphela Ramphele, was in trouble.
Married: 28 January 2014. Divorced: 2 February 2014. The union between the Democratic Alliance and AgangSA died unconsummated.
I know I mentioned last week that a week is a long time in politics, but this has to be a record.
Talking about rape makes me uncomfortable. It goes back to a traumatic exposure in my early adulthood when someone I loved very dearly raped a total stranger.