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IN TOUCH| Independents may be the game changers

South Africa is truly a country full of possibilities. Anything can happen on any given day. These next few days to the municipal elections in 16 days’ time will turn out to be the most interesting in our young democracy. There is…

IN TOUCH | Fields of nightmares

Little did I know when I saw a Facebook post by the Enoch Mgijima Municipality that they would be opening a sports stadium at Lesseyton that I would be walking into an intense media storm. I have been keeping tabs on the progress of that…

In Touch | Time to make your choice, do it wisely

Now that all the legal challenges are a thing of the past, it is now full speed ahead towards the local government elections on November 1. The local government elections, compared to the national and provincial ones, have the greatest…

IN TOUCH| Grim municipal audit result: Lumping burden on electorate to fix things is unfair

The auditor general (AG), Tsakani Maluleke, has released the 2019/20 audit outcomes of municipalities – it made grim reading. R26 billion of irregular expenditure. R5.5 billion given to 22 municipalities could not be accounted for – it…

IN TOUCH| Covid-19: elections game-changer

Many political parties are getting to the business end of their nomination processes in preparation for the upcoming local government elections. It is clear that these elections, for the first time since democracy, will be hotly contested…

IN TOUCH| Time to choose your candidate

The silly season that comes along once every five years is upon us. Judging by the heightened activity on social media it is clear that the merry-go-round, the horse trading and the jostling for positions for the upcoming local government…

IN TOUCH| Bills spell disaster: People need more protection, not less

A couple of weeks ago the minister of safety and security, Bheki Cele, released the crime statistics for the fourth quarter of the 2020/21 financial year from January to March 2021. Let me give you the statistics to see what you make of…

IN TOUCH| ANC more focused on squabbles than the economy

If this was not so serious, one would find the drama happening at Luthuli House more engrossing than any soapie on television. Grown women and men have spent the last few months squabbling like kindergarten classmates with seemingly no…

IN TOUCH| Spare us the political nonsense, and serve

The “If you are not with us then you are against us” attitude still drives the way we conduct our discourse, whether in politics or other spheres of life. As leaders, whether in church, sport or politics, one has to have the maturity to…

IN TOUCH| Bring back sport in our schools

For as long as I can remember there has been this idea that the only way to get yourself out of poverty or the only way to make something of yourself in this world, is through education. However, the best-run and the best-performing…

IN TOUCH| Do we have real leaders?

We have seen many politicians invoke the names of Chris Hani and Oliver Tambo in their quest to sway our views or to cover up whatever shenanigans they are trying to get away with. Interestingly, none of them quote these giants when they…

IN TOUCH| Living in these abnormal times

This is the second Easter weekend since the earth-shattering lockdown of last year which none of us had ever experienced before. Things that we took for granted since March last year are now looking like memories from a very distant past.…

IN TOUCH| Act, no matter what

There is always a question one asks: ‘Why now, why start with me, what about the others before me?’ I suppose this is a very natural thing to ask when you observe many wrong things being done by others and behaviour being exhibited by…

IN TOUCH| Plague of stock theft gangs has far-reaching effects on us all

According the police, more than 34 169 cases of stock theft were reported in the last five years while only 3 011 suspects were arrested in our province, the Eastern Cape. The police also estimate that more than 25 000 animals in this…

IN TOUCH| Name changes saga revealing

The name changes announced by minister of arts and culture and sport, Nathi Mthethwa, has dominated social media and the media at large. What this saga has exposed is how ignorant my fellow South Africans are about their own rich and…