Pointers for the Points Guy

South Africa’s David Newton discusses Dutchmen, rugby commentary and the finer points of cricket at a gathering of Global South Africans in San Diego. The gathering was organised and catered by Graham Perkett, owner of the amazing Deli-SA emporium of South African food, on behalf of Brand SA, to give South Africans living in southern [...]

The Washington Post’s Anne Applebaum, currently Phillipe Roman Professor at the London School of Economics and author of Gulag and Iron Curtain, returns to South Africa after 20 years, and is impressed: Given how bitter the conflict seemed when I last visited…the relative peace that reigns in relatively integrated South Africa feels miraculous. Unlike so [...]

The Council on Foreign Relations’ John Campbell has a new blog post post on corruption in SA. My response: No question, corruption is rife in South Africa. We know this because we have strong, free, independent institutions — not just parliament, but a strong judiciary, a crusading free press, a robust and vigorous civil society [...]

Colin Coleman, head of Goldman Sachs' sub-Saharan Africa division, is upbeat about South Africa, the Yale Daily News reports: Since the historical change in its politics in 1994, South Africa has achieved significant progress in its economy, Coleman said, citing a nearly doubled GDP growth rate between 1993 and 2007 and the 1 million South [...]

A series of shocking events has left South Africa's police looking brutal and inept. The Council on Foreign Relations top Africanist, John Campbell, former US ambassador to Nigeria, sees parallels with post-Soviet Russia but refuses to despair. South Africa, a genuine democracy, has self-correcting mechanisms lacking in non-democratic states. The Macia atrocity has been denounced [...]