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).
Most events do not occur in isolation. One might not think, for example that a plague of flies in Egypt might be linked to an outbreak of swine flu in other parts of the world, but the connections become obvious when one steps back to look at the bigger picture.
On Friday, 3 February 2012, Impala Platinum took the extraordinary step of firing 17 200 workers at its Rustenberg mine (which happens to be the largest platinum mine in the world).
More than 100 years ago, French workers whose way of life was threatened by automation threw their wooden shoes known as "sabot" into mills to disrupt them, hence the word "sabotage".1
When I was a young reporter in 1980, this newspaper was printed on presses which used plates cast by hot metal typesetting.
Some things are inherently stupid. It's stupid to burn Bibles in front of most evangelical Christians or to pour scorn on the Quran within earshot of most Muslims or to wear miniskirts in the Noord Street Taxi Rank in Johannesburg. It does not matter that our constitution gives us the right to do those things; it's just inherently stupid.
The African National Congress this week released discussion documents that will form the basis of its Policy Conference to be held in June this year. This is a significant item in the ANC's calendar of events building up to the December elective conference that will choose leadership for the following five-year period.
Essentially, the discussion documents will represent different viewpoints within the ANC, and the proponents of those viewpoints will be either voted into power or rejected come December.
Economist Tony Twine died on Sunday, 11 March 2012 at Jo'burg's Milpark Hospital following a heart attack during the week. He was 57 years old. I read that news as I was sitting in the departure lounge of Washington Dulles Airport waiting to board my flight to London.
Not many of you might remember the name of Kabelo Thibedi. I became involved in his life in a very dramatic way in late 2005 when I had been seconded to my current company, Yfm, as a caretaker MD. DJ Sbu, running the afternoon drive show, sent a message to me that he was dealing with a hostage drama from a caller.
Whenever I travel abroad (which is frequently), I tend to fly economy class. My logic is simple: I have a finite travel budget, so if I fly economy, I can have more frequent trips to more parts of the world. Case in point, an economy class round trip ticket to London can be had for as little as around R6000 as opposed to R60000 for a business class seat.
Now most reasonable people would nod in agreement with me – it is commonsensical after all – but for some unfathomable reason, too many people are not applying the same logic to toll roads.
By March, investors began to get a bit edgy about what was going on this country. Ratings agencies or their equivalent had downgraded our standing over successive periods.
Against this backdrop, the ruling party's ministers began to protest that South Africa was being unfairly judged. The country had systems in place, they said, which had enabled growth during difficult global economic times.
At the same time, the media was awash with tales of division within the ranks of the ruling party around critical issues of government policy.
Credibility is somewhat like virginity, I told interns at my weekly class not so long ago. Once it's gone, it's gone for good.
"But what about hymen reconstruction surgery?" one smart-ass in the class asked, reminding me that there were a substantial number of women who undergo the procedure prior to marriage generally to pay lip service to cultural values.