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).
Shortly after our freedom in 1994, cellular telephones using the GSM standard began making their way to our shores.
We soon found ourselves being able to travel the world and still remain accessible on the same phone number thanks to roaming – except for in the USA.
Many of you are likely to be familiar with the name Mike van Graan. He is a writer, playwright and artist from Cape Town where he currently resides. Mike
Reality is an illusion induced by absence of alcohol, a wise man once said.
Truth be told, through the years since I first heard that quote, I never thought him to be wise, merely drunk.
Now, I've had a change of heart.
On Sunday night, at around twenty past nine, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth from the International Space Station, safely splashing down about 400 kilometres off the coast of southern California.
Do you fancy a rhinoceros steak?
Astonishingly, it's a thought that came to mind directly linked to the US presidential election (which is underway as I pen these words).
Do you remember when you were a child at school and you used to play noughts and crosses? (Or, as the Americans call it, tic-tac-toe?)
And then, suddenly, you stopped. Do you remember why you stopped?
Flashback to the 80s: So Van was watching the 8 o'clock news on TV at a bar and the camera hones in on a guy standing on a building roof about to commit suicide.
"Bet you 10 rand he jumps," says the bartender to Van. "Done," says Van.
Peter Falk, whom many of us remember as the taciturn TV detective Colombo, had a memorable line in the fabulous 1987 movie, The Princess Bride: "When I was
Farmworkers in the Western Cape were this week once again preparing to take to the streets demanding higher wages. Their last foray on 15 November saw two people killed, buildings and vineyards set alight, and the road from Cape to Cairo shut down at De Doorns.
Let me be the first to say it: the re-election of Jacob Zuma as ANC president is the best possible thing we can hope for in building a better country.
