The Burning Violin

  A Country of Contradictions According to a new global study by UK bank Remitly, South Africa has been crowned the friendliest country in the world. ( World’s friendliest country? South Africa leads the way ) Yes, you read that correctly. Not Switzerland. Not Canada. Not that town in Japan where even the vending machines bow to you. South Africa. This is the same South Africa where the power grid is about as reliable as a politician’s promise, where potholes outnumber speed bumps, and where “service delivery” is something you hear about in fantasy novels. And yet, and yet, we’ve been told we’re the nicest bunch of people on the planet. On the surface, it seems impossible. But maybe the contradiction is the answer. Welcome to the Paradox Every day, South Africans face some pretty intense challenges: rolling blackouts, rising costs, worrying crime stats, dysfunctional infrastructure, and political turmoil that would make a Shakespearean tragedy look like a bedtime story. It’s no won...

  Let’s call it what it is: we’ve created a generation of kids who can ace a maths test, build a Minecraft empire, and recite the life cycle of a butterfly - but ask them to phone for a pizza, and they crumble. Why? Because we’ve turned parenting into air traffic control. Every decision, every problem, every slightly uncomfortable moment is intercepted by well-meaning adults with clipboards, contingency plans, and backup juice boxes. One minute you’re watching them learn to walk, and the next, you’re wondering if you should send a follow-up email to their university professor because they got a B. Welcome to the era of helicopter parenting. Buckle up - it’s bumpy, but not for the reasons you think. Hovering Is Not Helping Gone are the days when children climbed trees unsupervised or solved friendship fallouts without adult arbitration. Today, a scraped knee requires a parent-teacher conference, and a missed homework assignment prompts a flurry of late-night emails. This...

If you've ever watched a child try to draw a dinosaur and end up with a scribbled rainbow dragon wielding a sword and shooting cupcakes from its nose, you'll know exactly what unfiltered, glorious creativity looks like. It’s weird. It’s wonderful. And sadly, it doesn’t stand a chance in your average school setting. Sir Ken Robinson said it best, “We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it.” And he was right. Schools, for all their good intentions, have become factories. Not the cool Wonka kind. More like those grey, humming conveyor belts churning out identical boxes. Perfectly packaged. Neatly labelled. Void of any cupcakes or rainbow dragons. https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?language=en Let’s not mince words here. The traditional schooling system is absolutely phenomenal at killing creativity. Ruthless, really. Got a child who thinks sideways? Who asks why the sky isn’t purple, or what happen...

Let’s talk about something uniquely South African – a national sport that doesn’t involve balls, goals, or points. I’m talking about navigating our roads, a daily activity that’s as much about survival as it is about driving. Our roads have become a kind of dystopian carnival, where stop signs, traffic lights and speed limits are mere suggestions, and if you actually give way, you’re viewed as weak, possibly deranged. In other countries, roads are managed with orderly lanes, working lights, and drivers who have at least a vague notion of civility. Here in South Africa, it’s more like a social experiment on what happens when law, courtesy, and basic sanity are disregarded. And if you’re feeling an overwhelming sense of frustration – watching people weaving, ignoring every single rule, and treating every intersection like a Formula 1 race start – well, congratulations. You’re witnessing society's decay in real-time. The Joy of Ignoring the Rules When exactly did it become norma...

Corporate life is often painted as a battlefield—where only the strongest survive, the smartest rise, and the weak are left behind to update yet another pointless spreadsheet.  On paper, competition drives innovation, change keeps businesses agile, and new leadership brings fresh ideas. But in reality, what we often get is an environment of backstabbing, performative decision-making, and productivity-sapping nonsense that exists solely to make the new guy look good. Welcome to The Corporate Conundrum—where change isn’t always for the better, and competition doesn’t always bring out the best. The Cutthroat Circus There is an unspoken rule in the corporate world: You’re not just doing a job—you’re performing. Every project, every email, every conversation is a subtle (or not-so-subtle) attempt to prove that you’re an asset, that you deserve your salary, and that you’re better than the next person gunning for the same promotion. On paper, competition is meant to be a good thing. ...

When Education and Ethics Collide: The Profit Problem in South Africa’s Private Schooling Education is a calling – or at least it was once.  Today, it’s often an industry, especially in South Africa,  where private schooling has seen massive growth in the past two decades.  The promise? Higher  standards, individualised attention, and a better learning environment. The reality? Not always so  glamorous. Increasingly, private education companies are emerging that prioritise profit over the values they purport to champion, creating a concerning collision of ethics and business goals. The Rise of Corporate Education Giants In South Africa, private education companies are booming, presenting themselves as saviours of a troubled public education system. They offer polished campuses, brand-name uniforms, and state- of-the-art facilities.  Parents, understandably frustrated with overcrowded and underfunded public schools, see these offerings as a lifeline, a chanc...

If there were an Olympic event for resilience, South Africans would take gold, silver, and  bronze, before heading home to find the lights off because Eskom is at it again. We live in a  country where the government is more interested in self-preservation than service delivery,  where potholes are now considered natural landmarks, and where we’ve mastered the fine  art of keeping the economy alive despite the best efforts of those in charge to run it into the  ground. And yet, despite it all, we remain stubbornly, almost irrationally patriotic. The Man on the Street Forget the headlines, the corruption scandals, and the never-ending political circus. The real South Africa isn’t found in parliament. It’s in the corner café, the morning traffic jams, the queue at Home Affairs (where patience is tested at Olympic levels), and the small businesses that somehow keep going despite load shedding, red tape, and the world’s most creative tax collection system. Walk throu...