Opinion

Is Ngcukaitobi being set up against black empowerment?

Is Ngcukaitobi being set up against black empowerment?

The Bar will invoke the cab-rank rule, which generally requires counsel to accept a brief in a field where they practise, even when they dislike the client or cause. Yet the rule allows refusal where conflicts, competence, availability, improper instructions, fee issues or other special circumstances arise

Blocking NHI undermines transformation agenda

Blocking NHI undermines transformation agenda

The reality is that the State is granting subsidies to those who are financially better off. This is what the NHI seeks to do away with. NHI is a common fund that will fund our healthcare needs in both the public and private sector without regard to the economic status of the patient

Search on for next WHO chief

Search on for next WHO chief

The candidate, preferably a woman, should be able to navigate hurdles in an ever-changing geopolitical climate and lead reforms urgently

SA’s moral, technical high ground upends unipolar narrative

SA’s moral, technical high ground upends unipolar narrative

The “white genocide” narrative works inside this wider machinery. It racialises South Africa’s internal contradictions for foreign consumption. It turns a country struggling with the unresolved consequences of colonialism and apartheid into a supposed persecutor of whites. It erases land theft, labour exploitation, racial capitalism and the real suffering of the African majority. It invites external intervention and commercial leverage through racial fear

Rural community energy options amid climate change

Rural community energy options amid climate change

For most households, solar energy is used for lighting, powering radios and charging cellphones but only a few can afford high-capacity systems that enable them to meet household cooking needs

Where does patriotism end and xenophobia begin?

Where does patriotism end and xenophobia begin?

There is something deeply dishonest about how few South Africans discuss immigration. They have become comfortable with moral grandstanding while communities collapse under the pressure of uncontrolled migration, criminal syndicates, collapsing infrastructure, drug networks and economic exclusion. The ordinary South African who raises these realities is quickly condemned before they are even heard

The Populist vs. the Pope

The Populist vs. the Pope

The war of words between Pope Leo XIV and US President Donald Trump has revived the age-old clash between the sacred and the secular. But Trump has severely misjudged the “soft power” of the world’s preeminent religious leader, and attacking a popular pontiff will likely come at a high political cost.