What’s going on in our schools? We’ve got schools installing cameras to monitor kids, metal detectors at the front gates and now at Greenpoint High  in East London they are considering body searches! I can’t say I blame them, not after the recent incidents there where a pupil allegedly attacked a pregnant teacher with a knife.

But all these developments send cold shivers down my spine when I try to imagine what schools will be like in 10 years or so when my daughter goes to high school. Will pupils be manacled and attached to their desks? Will there be armed guards patrolling the corridors of learning?

When I was at school such things were pretty much unheard of. The worst you would come across would be a bunch of guys bust for smoking a joint or a couple of fags behind the toilets.  Now we have kids getting drunk at school, entire classrooms of girls pregnant, police conducting classroom raids and so on.

What’s going on here? Are our children turning feral or is something else at play?

It may be a little premature to breathe a sigh of relief over the decision by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to limit Eskom’s new tariff hike to 13,3 percent. On the face of it 13,3 percent sounds a whole lot better than the 60 percent increase that Eskom had asked for – over and above the 14 percent increase it was granted earlier this year. But there is a lot of sting left in this tale. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I had the pleasure of introducing the former deputy minister of health, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, to an audience here in East London as part of our series of public dialogue meetings. I have rarely met such a warm and down-to-earth person and a politician with such integrity – a rare creature indeed.You may recall that it was she who was fired last year after visiting Frere Hospital during our series about baby deaths there and describing what she found as a “national emergency”.

Yesterday she returned to Frere to speak to staff again – and was told to leave the premises by hospital bosses and security. She spoke to me about the experience while we chatted on the stage at the Guild prior to the start of proceedings and she was clearly disturbed that staff there were still working in extremely trying conditions. She also spoke of her concern at the government’s reaction to the deaths of babies up in Barkley East which this newspaper recently reported on.

She had some interesting views on other pressing issues during her speech. I thought her comments about the influence of the commodities futures market in Chicago on food prices to be thought-provoking as well as her advocating  TRCs for state corruption and economic apartheid.

It was inspiring to listen to a politician honestly acknowledge the failing of government and to witness her eagerness to engage with citizens on their ideas around these pressing issues.

Personally I hope she returns to Cabinet next year – and that there are a few more folk like her waiting in the wings.