The French philosopher who wrote under the pen name Voltaire urged tolerance of dissenting opinions and uncomfortable ideas more than 300 years ago.
We surrendered a powerful resource in 1994 and the years immediately after when we assumed the war against bad government was won and allowed our vibrant civil society to wither.
Everyone who follows South African politics with any enthusiasm knew that 2012 would be an interesting year, but with seven months to go before Mangaung, "interesting" has taken on an oriental connotation.
Leon Wessels, the former National Party democracy negotiator who became a human rights commissioner, made a simple point in a radio interview about democratic South Africa's 18th birthday last week. We have become very good at telling, he said, but we have lost the art of listening.
Normay and the United States have taken very different routes in their trials of the most evil men of their recent history.
There is nothing quite like a road trip to help one to reconnect with the complexity and wonder that is South Africa.
ANC members of the Matatiele town council were ordered by their party last week to reverse a majority vote to sack mayor Ntombovuyo Nkopane and two other executive committee members.
GODZILLE has finally acknowledged that it was a mistake to refer to the children who travel west along the Indian Ocean seaboard in search of a better education as "refugees".
South Africa is entering a dangerous season from which it may not emerge unscathed.
Twin stories in the Saturday Dispatch this weekend lifted the veil just slightly on the mechanics of the corruption acknowledged even by the ANC as a major threat to our society.
One of President Jacob Zuma's favourite dodges when faced with an issue on which he would prefer not to take a position is to say: "We must talk about this matter."
The rich man's rand is being stretched far and hard to transform South Africa from a minority economy to an inclusive one.
This is the week of every year in which the chasm between the parallel universes of South African politics and finance yawns widest.
The new South African society is being shaped in large part by role models - good ones sometimes and, at others, unfortunate examples of what we can and should want to be.
Is it possible that we South Africans expect too little of ourselves, and the low benchmarks by which we measure ourselves explain our failures?
Nkosazna Dlamini-Zuma's failure to unseat the African Union Commission chairman, Gabon's Jean Ping, in an election in Addis Ababa on Monday was not the foreign policy disaster some are calling it.
The ANC has been selling access to government leaders at least since 2006.
"Things are never so bad they can't be made worse," said Humphrey Bogart. It is a thought worth holding on to as we tumble towards the ANC's elective conference in Mangaung at the end of the year.
It is sad for the ANC that it is having to celebrate its centenary year at such a low point in its history, and with one of the weakest leaders it has ever had at the helm. How do you savour such a brave record when the once-great movement is sliding ever deeper into corrupt ineptitude?
Everyone who reads this column, whether online or on paper wrapped around a portion of chips, will make use of some public and some private service today.
Contrasting experiences in recent weeks amplified the debate in my head about the future of news in print - and led me to a happier conclusion than I had expected.
Greener's Law, which says one should never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel, was never so apposite as last week, when parliament voted to adopt the Protection of State Information Bill.
The first South African country report of the African Peer Review Mechanism said in May 2007 that our government did not quite get public consultation. It still doesn't.
Aubrey Matshiqi, one of my favourite political analysts, posed an important question at a public debate in East London this week: Will the ANC succession struggle deliver a leadership that is capable of addressing the accumulating challenges of poverty, unemployment and social deprivation?
President Jacob Zuma set alarm bells ringing again on Tuesday when, in an address to parliament, he effectively warned the Constitutional Court to leave the business of government to the government.
Thabo Mbeki fought valiantly during his presidency against the advance of sound-bite journalism.
LIAM Fox, the British secretary of state for defence, has been felled by a relationship uncannily similar to Jacob Zuma's relationship with Schabir Shaik.
THE Daily Dispatch reported the award of this year's Nobel peace prize to three brave women, two of them from Africa, on the front page, with an eye-catching montage anchored by the well-known face of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
DESMOND Tutu is a consummate actor and a clever poker player - skills that have helped a little to make him one of the most important figures in modern South African history.
WOULD-BE president Tokyo Sexwale warned this week that the gathering global economic storm could be the second stage of a full-blown double-dip recession.
South Africa has tried to punch above its weight in global diplomacy, but has failed since Nelson Mandela retired from the presidency to land that devastating left hook that the world would talk about for ever after.
WELL, they've done it. The ad hoc committee on the Protection of Information Bill finalised a text on Monday for parliament's rubber stamp that will make it a prison offence for a whistleblower to pass a classified document proving crime or corruption to anyone other than a police officer.
ONE can forecast the value of the rand, the price of a share or the weather if one dares, but I have learned over many years that predicting political events is a mug's game.
IN 2003, Thabo Mbeki described South Africa as a country with two parallel economies: one developed, rich and globalised, the other broken, poor and rural.
ARCHBISHOP Desmond Tutu has always spoken more from the heart than most people would dare, whether it is to greedy government ministers, errant parishioners, the needy poor or the wealthy elite.
NO ONE could reasonably argue that the challenge of youth unemployment and poverty is not on the South African agenda: it gets a mention in almost every cabinet-level speech and most of the policy documents that flow from our bloated executive.
WATCHING parliament in action is often quite disappointing so it is heartening to see a more positive episode unfolding.
Most South Africans have tended over many years to treat policy debate as a spectator sport, muttering on the sidelines, perhaps, but seldom daring to stand up to defend a line call.
Spurred by a measure of self-interest, the South African media has devoted more space in the past year to the secrecy bill than to any single draft law other than the constitution.
