Thought Leader » Gavin Foster

Driven by necessity? You be the judge

Gavin Foster — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 09:13:35 +0000

It was interesting to note that at last month’s Judicial Service Commission interviews for the post of KwaZulu-Natal deputy judge president, Judge President Chiman Patel chose to grill Judge Isaac Madondo over the fact that he was the only judge in the division to enjoy the services of a dedicated driver. Judge Madondo responded that...

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Take a bow, Alan Smithee

Gavin Foster — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:40:04 +0000

So there go 87 minutes of my life, wasted on a deplorable movie called 2010: Moby Dick, compliments of DStv. Based very loosely upon the 1851 Herman Melville classic, it ramps Captain Ahab and his ferocious nemesis, a gigantic albino man-eating sperm whale, straight into the 21st century. The unrepentant mariner is once again hell-bent...

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Superman se gat! Here comes SuperVaclav!

Gavin Foster — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:24:48 +0000

The comic book superheroes we grew up with could do no wrong. They leapt over tall buildings with aplomb, sliced through steel girders with laser-beam eyes, and stopped runaway locomotives by holding up the palm of one hand. Policemen applauded them, ordinary folk adored them, and when they slipped back into anonymity by replacing their...

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So what’s in a name?

Gavin Foster — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:09:21 +0000

Would you consider allowing somebody called “Audio Science” or “Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily” to service your expensive new car? How thrilled would you be to find out that the fellow in the white coat and rubber gloves standing expectantly by the dentist’s chair was actually a magician’s son called “Moxie Crimefighter Jillette”? Would you feel...

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Boats, goats and sleepless nights…letter to JZ

Gavin Foster — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:06:11 +0000

Dear President Zuma I’m sure you have absolutely no idea how thrilled I was this morning to read Sipho Khumalo’s report in The Mercury on your keynote address at the Richards Bay Jobs Summit and Jobs Fair yesterday. He says you “lashed the KZN business community for its lack of innovation and creativity in embracing...

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76 airbags and 11 885 words…

Gavin Foster — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:46:50 +0000

So what do you think about Top Gear — the BBC’s motoring show featuring the irrepressible Jeremy Clarkson and his two much-abused sidekicks? The programme is irreverent and boorish, it’s offensive, it’s insensitive to the feelings of minorities and, ultimately, it has little to do with mainstream motoring journalism because Clarkson and company never let...

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We’d love to hang ‘em high…but we can’t

Gavin Foster — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 06:42:07 +0000

There’s one very good reason why we could never reinstate the death penalty in South Africa, and it has little to do with the Constitution as far as I’m concerned. It’s simply that we couldn’t properly trust or control a state killing machine capable of churning its way through the tens of thousands of brutal,...

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Men in black — bodyguards without a cause

Gavin Foster — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:10:57 +0000

It’s always struck me as rather odd the way ANC politicians and public servants seem obsessed with security. Surely, as democratically elected representatives of the people they should feel free to walk in the streets without let or hindrance? The much-hated apartheid hierarchy were certainly nowhere near as paranoid about being assassinated as our supposedly...

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Innocent until proven guilty — unless Fifa’s in town

Gavin Foster — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:43:25 +0000

So here we go. In the 1990s we had Kitsburghers (instant citizens) who could vote in the referendum, followed by Kitskonstabels (hastily half-trained policemen to help in the fight against crime). Now we have Kitsgeregtigheid, or instant justice, to ease the way during Fifa’s subjugation of our fair land. Steal a cellphone on Monday morning,...

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Berry Nieuwenhuys: The Free State boykie who almost played for England

Gavin Foster — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:27:52 +0000

Imagine this. You’re a youngster playing a minor club game of football in Boksburg when a man dashes on to the field during a lull in play and asks if you’d like to play for Liverpool. You wonder if he’s for real, but, of course, accept. A few weeks later, on the other side of...

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