Posts

Twitter  LinkedIn  Facebook  Instagram  YouTube





Take your kids on a less travelled road of motorsports

Image
BY PHUTI MPYANE It could be argued that growing up during the dark period of apartheid, black youngsters wouldn’t be expected to have a keen interest in motorsport, yet this was largely a falsehood. Soccer, which I happened to be adept at, was the expected norm. As a grown up adult on the cusp of hitting the big Five-Oh, I recognise that maybe I was cut from a different cloth from my peers, and my own Father hadn’t recognised this. For instance, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates rang true and hard in my peer and other circles yet, there I was as a 10 year old, circa 1985, and a big fan of Moroka Swallows. Many young boys in those days can trace their football allegiances to a Father, Uncle or peers in general. Mine has no origins to some level. My Father was not a soccer fan, and neither were most of my immediate male relatives. Memorable influences were a Swallows player who gave me the first glimpse of a ‘Bicycle Kick.’ The team’s Burgundy kit, perhaps, too, which I would later don f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Standard Bank’s Security Blunder: How My Account Was Debited Without Authorisation

Image
Standard Bank branch When Standard Bank notified its customers on July 3 2024 that its fraud mitigation measures remained robust and continued to protect them from potential fraud on their accounts, I believed it. Four months later, in November, the bank said it would take disciplinary action against an employee who copied client data, including limited personal and financial information, to their personal device. Again, I believed it. Four months later in November, when the bank said it would take disciplinary action against an employee that copied client data including limited person and financial information to their personal device, I again believed them.  Here I was, thinking Standard Bank took data security seriously and would go out of its way to protect customers against fraudulent schemes and in the process beef up its – it now appears – weak internal controls. The bank spoke out strongly, saying its fraud detection systems will continue to actively identify and block any ...
Post a Comment
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Read more

From Deep House to Deep Routes: A Nostalgic SA Road Trip in the Jeep Wrangler

Image
BY PHUTI MPYANE Knight SA’s (and I stand to be corrected) real name is Edwin Cornelius Fortune. He is among a mob of exciting young DJs blazing the SA deep house scene. The striking difference about the selections of this powerhouse versus the glut of sub-genres that denote the modern deep house genres, such as amapiano, is the lineage of midtempo house popularised during the 2000s by a number of legendary DJs, including one Glen Lewis. It was a time when cars played a central role in the lifestyles of black middle-class youth fuelled by a burgeoning hope that the country was well and truly entering an era of equality, not just in the employment and entrepreneurship stakes, but the prospects of new-found living experiences; such as travel for pleasure instead of the mandatory and traditional check-ins with rural relations entrenched by our immediate fore-bears. Knight SA’s silky mixes initiate the nostalgia when many still had dreams of saving up for their first Golf GTI, and that stor...
Post a Comment
Read more

AfriForum’s Disinformation Campaign Triggers U.S. Sanctions on South Africa, Fueling Diplomatic Crisis

Image
Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa In early February 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order halting all U.S. aid to South Africa, citing alleged human rights violations against the country's white Afrikaner minority. This decision has ignited a complex geopolitical dispute involving South African Afrikaner groups AfriForum and Solidarity, and has prompted a robust response from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The Executive Order and Its Implications On February 7, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled "Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa." The order accused the South African government of implementing policies that violate human rights, specifically pointing to the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024. This legislation permits the government to expropriate land in the public interest, a move Trump and his administration argue disproportionately affects white farmers and landowners, particularly those of Afrikaner de...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ramaphosa To Trump: We Will Not Be Bullied

Image
President Cyril Ramaphosa In a rare show of defiance, an emboldened President Cyril Ramaphosa strongly rebuked his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump , a pathological liar of note, telling him in no uncertain terms that SA will not be bullied. In his state of the nation address (Sona) in Cape Town on Thursday night (February 6), Ramaphosa chastised the leader of the world's largest economy for interferring in our domestic affairs, saying: "We are witnessing the rise of nationalism and protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause. This is the world that we, as a developing economy, must now navigate. “But we are not daunted. We will not be deterred. We are a resilient people. We will not be bullied. We will stand together as a united nation. We will speak with one voice in defence of our national interest, our sovereignty and our constitutional democracy.” Ramaphosa’s defiant stance against Trump follows tumultuous weeks for the country, marked by ...
Post a Comment
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Read more

Why Are South African Soldiers Dying Like Flies In Peacekeeping Missions?

Image
13 SANDF soldiers have been killed by M23 rebels in Goma since January 24 The question I would like to ask the spineless and supposed commander-in-chief of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), President Cyril Ramaphosa, is why is he allowing our troops to die like flies in unstable African countries like the Central African Republic (CAR) and most recently the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)? Whose interests are these soldiers serving/protecting in these godforsaken regions? Will Ramaphosa be pulling our troops out of these UN-/SADC-/AU-backed suicide peacekeeping missions? If yes, when, and if no, why? In a hard-hitting statement on Sunday, the far-left EFF reiterated its "long-standing warnings that SANDF troops deployed in the DRC are under-resourced and ill-prepared to face the dangers posed by the well-equipped M23 rebels". "In fact, it is reported that our soldiers had no supplies or ammunition as of Friday, a glaring case of neglect on the part of our governm...
2 comments
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Read more