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there is the high veld, the middle veld, the low veld, the bush veld, and now thoughts from the thorn veld,

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  • About the writer
  • Sharp Thoughts
  • Book Reviews
  • Memoirs
  • Miscellaneous
  • Reflections on the Rainbow Nation
  • Sharp Sharp
  • Contact Me
  • Privacy Policy

Month: December 2017

  • The Big Fix: How South Africa Stole the 2010 World Cup

    Ray Hartley, The Big Fix: How South Africa Stole the 2010 World Cup (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2016) THE RUN-UP to the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa lasted five years. It was a remarkably […]

    December 24, 2017Book Reviews

     
  • On a road to nowhere

    FOR many years there has been major excavation and traffic disruption at the junction of Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross Road in London. The reason is the massive tunnel being drilled through […]

    December 15, 2017Sharp Thoughts

     
  • Reflections on the Rainbow Nation: Myth and Reality in South Africa’s History

    PREFACE Over the years Pietermaritzburg’s daily newspaper, The Witness, was kind enough to publish my opinion pieces and the occasional feature article. For a while the former appeared in the series ‘New Ground’, along with […]

    December 12, 2017Reflections on the Rainbow Nation

     
  • Introduction

    IT was a remarkable, passionate outburst of the sort for which Desmond Tutu has become famous. In November 2011 he roundly denounced the South African government over its failure (again) to issue the Dalai Lama […]

    December 12, 2017Reflections on the Rainbow Nation

     
  • 1. John William Colenso: human rights activist?

    DURING November 2003 the Anglican Diocese of Natal marked its 150th anniversary. Inevitably many of the celebrations focused on its first bishop, John William Colenso (1818−1883), who lived at the Ekukhanyeni mission just outside Pietermaritzburg […]

    December 12, 2017Reflections on the Rainbow Nation

     
  • 2. Edendale: Kholwa identity and survival

    EDENDALE municipality has never existed, but it should have done. James Allison, the dissident Wesleyan missionary, arrived in Natal from Swaziland in 1847 with a destitute refugee community of 400 that had originated in Transorangia and settled […]

    December 12, 2017Reflections on the Rainbow Nation

     
  • 3. Natives Land Act: pariahs in their own land

    ‘AWAKING on Friday morning, June 20, 1913, the South African native found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth.’ This is Sol Plaatjie’s memorable verdict on the Natives […]

    December 12, 2017Reflections on the Rainbow Nation

     
  • 4. A charter for freedom

    THREE trucks left Pietermaritzburg in mid-June 1955 en route to the Congress of the People at Kliptown, Johannesburg. Some of their passengers were from the Indian community and they lacked the required permits to travel to the […]

    December 12, 2017Reflections on the Rainbow Nation

     
  • 5. New Age: two newspapers, same name, different times

    THE ANC has persistently grumbled about the media and threatened for some while to launch its own daily newspaper. Backed by Gupta family money, its long-delayed appearance last month was somewhat ironic given the name of […]

    December 12, 2017Reflections on the Rainbow Nation

     
  • 6. State of Emergency, 1960: the onset of a police state

    ‘WE do not know how long comment in this or any other newspaper in South Africa will remain free.’ That was the grim opening to the main leader in the Natal Witness on 31 March 1960. The […]

    December 12, 2017Reflections on the Rainbow Nation

     

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