
Max du Preez gets taken to task for not once criticising media/tech giant Naspers for its role in facilitating human rights abuses in China
South African blues-rock outfit The Lyzyrd Kyngs released their second full-length album, A Few Grains of Sand, at the end of 2014. An event that has been somewhat under-reported in the mainstream media, which is a crying shame, because it is a damn fine collection of songs, showcasing the collective talents of some of South Africa’s most enduring blues-rock musicians.
The Inaugural Stephen Ellis Memorial Lecture was recently delivered by Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State. In it he makes some very valid comments about the current wave of student protests at South African universities and the role that white academic and cultural intransigence, an apathetic government and a new generation of black intolerance have played in its emergence.
The venality and gross incompetence of the ANC government have provided a convenient smokescreen for unelected lobbyists and vested interest groups to inveigle themselves into the South African political process at the expense of transparency and democracy. One such organisation is the Free Market Foundation, a neo-liberal lobby group that styles itself as a non-profit Public Benefit Organisation.