Thomas Johnson - The Blog

In Daily Maverick  Tiara Walters wrote  "200,000-plus wild animals slaughtered in Table Mountain National Park by Cape Town cats each year"   about a  journal paper  by  University of Cape Town  FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology researchers .  In 2010 John Yeld wrote a similar article in the Cape Argus : “Cape Town's moggies are having a significant effect on the city's wildlife, killing – at a conservative estimate – somewhere between 3.9 million and 5.9 million animals each year.” It was about UCT Master's student Sharon George’s thesis in which she described her survey of 78 cats, using GPS, in Cape Town suburbs from which she extrapolated the number of domestic cats kills in the Cape Town metro. Robert Simmons was George’s supervisor and wrote a paper about it. The World of Bird's Walter Mangold responded disagreeing with aspects of her findings.  I also wrote – Yeld replied to me but my letter wasn't publis...

South Africa owes a huge debt to Mark Heywood. As co-founder of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) with Zackie Achmat, he forced government to provide treatment for HIV/AIDS sufferers that then president Thabo Mbeki’s denialism had denied them. Lately, he’s editor of Maverick Citizen, a section of Daily Maverick (DM). DM is largely an opinion site with professional writers and unpaid op-ed contributors (in 2016 they published one of mine). In 2017 it formed investigative unit Scorpio , which in partnership with amaBungani broke the Gupta Leaks emails story. But news and investigative reporting is secondary to its mission.  Daily Maverick had the potential to be South Africa’s leading news and analysis independent in the style of the Mail & Guardian of a decade and more ago, taking over the mantle from Sunday Times which damaged its reputation through unethical and unprofessional conduct. After 2017, coincidentally the time it discontinued readers’ comments...

William Saunderson-Meyer is a syndicated columnist for the Weekend Argus, The Citizen, Politicsweb and others. He writes the Jaundiced Eye column. His position is soft liberal, centre-right, typical of progressive white supporters of the DA. This group, which includes white intellectuals, grandly consider themselves defenders of democracy, during and after apartheid. Like his ilk, his columns are anti-ANC.   Being them, there is much to agree with him. Written in high-dudgeon outrage of many columnists, his analyses are superficial.   In that he’s similar to most of South African opinion and analyses, which is common place and poor. I didn’t read him regularly until I started reading Politicsweb in 2016 (disclosure: I no longer read it ). I never gave him much thought except he was inoffensive and run-of-the-mill. While I agreed with his sentiment about the ANC, left and government, the majority of his writing as a political columnist, I noticed often his fact...

In The Guardian yesterday director of South Africa’s National Prosecutions Authority Shamila Batohi writes writes that now more than ever “prosecutors need to show empathy for the vulnerable and be vigilant against corruption and organised crime”. She has very little to show in terms of corruption prosecutions, particular crimes allegedly committed during former president Jacob Zuma’s administration, now himself getting his day in court . Her appointment was greeted with “ Ramaphoria ”, Panglossian support for incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa who his supporters believed would overnight correct all the country’s problems. But as the extent of the dysfunction of the NPA became apparent to her, including it being “captured” by political patronage and prosecutions influenced by ANC politics, hope faded of seeing the corrupt – even small fry – behind bars anytime soon. And with that, hope dissipated that she personally could and would make a difference. Under her pr...

The South African chapter of the Trump fan club – Biznews, Politicsweb, Daily Friend, columnists Simon Lincoln-Reader, John Kane-Berman et al and commentators – try very hard to explain Trump’s outrageous actions. Mostly, they just ignore it ostrich-like (BN banned me when I wrote they ignored Black Lives Matters protests that Trump had inflamed). Ironically, with the  shocking revelations  in US’ former national security advisor John Bolton’s new book  The Room Where It Happened , Trump has done what they accuse the ANC of doing: kowtowing to China, ignoring human rights abuses by China and other countries, halting criminal investigations to favour dictators and nefarious people and doing business deals with them. 1.       Trump pleaded with China’s Xi to help win the 2020 election. 2.       He suggested he wanted more than two terms in office. 3.       Trump offered favour...

Media site BizNews (BN), edited and published by Alex Hogg, banned me on Tuesday from commenting. I don’t know the reason but it follows an exchange on Monday and Tuesday with two commentators about civility, criticism, freedom of speech and right of reply.   One of them, Geoff Coles from Somerset West, a retired accountant and expatriate Brit originally from Durham, is a troll and irritant on BN and Politicsweb (PW). Almost each time he comments, it is to insult and criticise no matter what is discussed, even if he agreed with one. Last year he alleged, without evidence, Politicsweb columnist William Saunderson-Meyer accepted bribes to write positive pieces about government. In an unusual riposte, Saunderson-Meyer called him an “offensive man”. This is the way of the right-wing, though, 90% of commentators. They attack and defame, more for sycophantic approval than making a contribution to debate. They hate independent minds that don’t follow the herd. On PW and...

At the moment a momentous story is unfolding in the US that has pushed even the coronavirus pandemic from top story:  nation-wide protests and riots over the death of George Floyd after he was choked by a policeman . It's the lead or second lead of international media. This weekend there was another event that in normal times would've been the top story: SpaceX's launch taking US astronauts into space, a major event for American technology and space exploration after the closure of shuttle programme. But the riots pushed it into other news including in the US. This morning I did a roundup of a few local media - Biznews, Daily Maverick, News24, Timeslive, IOL - to see if and how they're covering the riots. BN had none and the others relegated to a minor story down their site. I didn't see it on IOL but perhaps it was there lost in the usual verbiage. Local media's omission is so typical - mediocre. But BN had a news brief of the SpaceX launch under t...