2018 has been a good year for South African movie-goers’ pride with the release of the highly (and deservedly so) acclaimed Black Panther movie and specifically the decision to use Xhosa as the language of Wakanda. But there are actually plenty more obscure references to South Africa, particularly in some of our favourite shows growing […]

Let me start with some context: I am a well-off white male – the international trifecta of privilege – and Afrikaans to boot, just to add some local flavour to my human stew of oppressiveness. Born eight years before the end of apartheid the only thing I really remember about the dark days are oddly vivid […]

Experts regularly warn of the impending doom that South Africa’s own brain drain will bring to the country’s economy in the near future, and with over 300 qualified engineers leaving South Africa every year (according to Fin24 stats a few years ago), it seems that the pool of competent engineers, critical to the development of any country, […]

This article is not meant to belittle the horrible events that occurred in Paris on 13 November but to highlight the notion that the winds of change have brought new terrors that should make one rethink traditional conceptions of safety. Eleven-Thirteen (11-13) is another infamous date to be added to 9-11 and 7-7; another senseless act of terror; another deadly […]

The previous two years have been turbulent times in international aviation: two Malaysian airliners, and their full complement of passengers, lost in the span of four months and a Russian airplane performing a fatal nosedive over the pyramids, on Halloween – its deadly descent possibly expedited by explosives. With this current spate of deadly aerial […]

Dire economic destabilisation, a disenfranchised populace and death – these are not the results of spiraling crime figures or rampant political corruption, but of another, more insidious threat to South Africa’s national security. These are the very likely consequences of a continued disregard for the country’s most valuable resource: water. (See infographic below.) The most […]