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/ 26 March 2008

Have we become too grand?

Remember the days when, as inaugural transport minister, Mac Maharaj insisted that he would continue to drive his beat-up old Jetta? It struck a chord, for it spoke of a government that would live comfortably yet simply. Those days died quickly as the new democrats dusted off old protocol books designed for a venal order.

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/ 1 July 2007

The state, revolution and rhetoric

The thought of South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande as minister of finance sends shivers down my spine. Not because I fear a Red Fiscus (provided it stays in the black). What concerns me is the cavalier absence of thought and analysis that characterises critiques of the ruling party by the central leaders of the SACP and trade union federation Cosatu.

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/ 8 April 2005

White is not the new black

"The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> is a muckraking newspaper. Ours is not a sober newspaper like the <i>Financial Times</i> (though I wish we could occasionally imitate its sobriety) or a paper of record like the <i>Washington Post</i>," writes Ferial Haffajee. Muckraking requires running those articles that stir debate and in the past year we have whet the appetite (and often the ire) of readers — most recently with Malegapuru Makgoba’s article.

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/ 23 January 2005

Tickle our tummies, hear us purr

The SABC’s newsreader purred like a pussycat when she announced last year that the government was giving itself a Christmas present: nine military transport Airbuses at a cost of R1-billion each. The tone of the report was celebratory. The soundbite was from the contracting minister, public enterprise’s Alec Erwin, who praised the deal.

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/ 8 October 2004

‘We’ve got the balls of elephants’

Schabir Shaik will tell the Durban High Court next week that there was nothing improper in his relationship with Deputy President Jacob Zuma, but that they were bound together by deeply personal ties of family and political struggle. Central to the fraud and corruption charges Shaik faces is the allegation that he had a corrupt relationship with Zuma, who facilitated contracts for Shaik’s company in return for bribes. Both Zuma and Shaik have disputed this.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=Insight-National&ao=123337">Politics of patronage</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=Insight-National&ao=123340">Zuma’s popularity undented</a>

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/ 15 November 2003

Africa in the year 2025

A ground-breaking study by the United Nations Development Programme has sought to predict what life in Africa could be like by 2025. Contributions to the study came from more than 1 000 African thinkers. Their prognosis: four scenarios ranging from imminent doom to rapid modernisation and heightened prosperity.

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/ 23 October 2003

Making banks serve the people

South Africa has world-class financial architecture but faces the conundrum that the majority of the poor do not have access to these globally competitive financial services. With more than six in 10 South Africans classified as "unbanked", the challenge is to localise services while continuing to be globally competitive.

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/ 8 May 2003

No tip for Mr Delivery

Mr Delivery. That’s how some members of the presidency characterised the ascendancy of President Thabo Mbeki in 1999. Since then Mbeki has run a managerialist presidency where emphasis is placed on delivering the "better life for all" that is a cornerstone of the African National Congress in office.