Toh Unplugged

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...

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 ...

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...