A lack of adequate resources and asset-stripping by the Irish carpetbagger Tony — now Sir Anthony — O'Reilly are the real problems with the Cape Times, not the undeniable quality, let alone pigmentation, of the staff. But there are other issues too that require examination.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 29 December 2013
It now appears that it was the fairly recently ordained pastor and political changeling, Wesley Douglas, who was one of the organisers of the group that gatecrashed a Right to Know (R2K) protest in Cape Town yesterday.
Terry Bell
News | 18 December 2013
The saga of the Cape Times and South Africa’s Independent Newspapers (INL) group plumbed new depths of farce this afternoon (December 17) when a rent-a-crowd arrived in the city to support the putative new owner, Iqbal Survé.
Terry Bell
News | 17 December 2013
As everyone from monarchs to the labouring masses this week sought to share in the Mandela memorial moment, the myth machine went into overdrive, the very machine Mandela had so disparaged when I sat with him in his Johannesburg office in 1992. One sentence he uttered then has resonated with me throughout the years: “I am no messiah.”
Terry Bell
Opinion | 17 December 2013
The Independent Newspaper Group (INL) is in considerable turmoil following the effective sacking without notice of the editor of the Cape Times, Alide Desnois, by the putative owner of INL, Iqbal Surve. This bodes ill for the group and poses a possible threat to media freedom.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 9 December 2013
One element lacking in the current debates about what is going on in Cosatu is any sense of recent history. Because there is nothing really new in the current spate of political bloodletting, in the bitterness and the backstabbing.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 2 December 2013
Politics stinks. These days in South Africa, this is a fairly common view. But, in the North West province in recent months, the expression has had a very real resonance.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 26 November 2013
Fudging and delay. That was what emerged from last week’s eagerly awaited Cosatu press conference. As a result, the questions about the future of suspended general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and the prospect of a Special National Congress (SNC) remained unanswered.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 25 November 2013
The road crash massacre on the Moloto Road in Mpumalanga last week provides an horrific portent for the annual festive season slaughter on the highways and byways of South Africa. And the manner in which the deaths of 29 people were reported, being consigned, for the most part, to the inside pages of newspapers, reveals just how accepting the country has become of such carnage.
Terry Bell.
Opinion | 18 November 2013