Archive for the ‘Posts’ Category
A footnote on electoral systems
In today’s Observer, columnist Nick Cohen describes closed-list electoral systems in rather unflattering terms: “Straw wants a modified version of the closed list system, the neatest swindle ever dreamt up by machine politicians.”
While I think there were good reasons for introducing a closed-list system in South Africa in 1994, the time has come to revamp it. The flood of talent that entered Parliament then has now largely departed, and measures to renew standards are urgently needed.
Lovely beyond any singing
A photograph I took in the Eastern Cape in late 2003 was chosen by my friend Helen Moffett for the cover of her collection of South African landscape writing, Lovely Beyond Any Singing. A news article about the book and its author appeared recently on the University of Cape Town website.
The photograph was taken just before dark with a Pentax K1000 through the front windscreen of a VW Kombi minibus, being driven by a crackhead at a speed of 140km/h. The setting sun was directly behind us, streaming through a tunnel formed by the land, low dark clouds, and lines of hills on either side.
