From The Thornveld Sharp Thoughts – Page 3 – Welcome
  • SACOS fifty years on: a tale of commitment and betrayal

    SPORT and its organisation reflect the society around it, making a mockery of persistent suggestions that sport can or should be apolitical. Thus, in the mid-twentieth century in South Africa it was organised on racially […]

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  • Football and other disillusionments

    I’VE supported West Ham ever since I can recall. Most of my immediate ancestors are from London, my father was born a few streets away from the old Boleyn Ground at Upton Park (his father […]

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  • Of potholes and privatisation

    THE photo that accompanies this piece indicates that whatever their level of current despair, South Africans have yet to lose their sense of humour, often the only protection against absurdity. A number of potholes in […]

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  • Shutting down civil liberties in South Africa

    OVER the years the South African definition of long weekend has expanded. Traditionally, it involved a Monday or Friday public holiday. But nowadays only a rare Wednesday holiday does not create a long weekend. President […]

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  • From the acute embarrassment of Eskom to the utter shame of Mosi 2

    FOR months there has been mounting anger in all sectors of South African society about the downward spiral of Eskom, including from those who don’t pay for what it produces. A revolving door of loadshedding […]

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  • The Durban moment fifty years on: hope as revolutionary force

    AT the head of the march of 2 000 workers was a man holding aloft a red flag. This was Durban fifty years ago on 9 January and the flag was simply a warning to […]

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  • The making and shaping of history: the death of Dag Hammarskjöld

    NEARLY ten years ago I was fortunate to review for the Witness Susan Williams’ brilliant book based on her research into the death of United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in the crash of flight […]

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  • Then, UKZN … and now, UCT

    THE CURRENT standoff at University of Cape Town, brought to a head by the vice-chancellor and chair of Council’s apparent economy with the truth with Senate about the departure of a member of the executive, […]

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  • Nuclear Armageddon

    IT’S exactly sixty years since the Cuban missile crisis ‒ known to Russians as the Caribbean crisis. The climax lasted thirteen days and historians judge it to be the closest the world has come to […]

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  • A country run by thugs

    FEW people outside Tshwane (Pretoria) will have heard of Kalafong Hospital in Atteridgeville. But it recently, and surprisingly briefly, hit the headlines when a neo-fascist vigilante outfit calling itself Operation Dudula (force out in Zulu) […]

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