Although there have been major political developments this past month, both at home and abroad, I have decided to focus this column on a key modern technology area: hydrogen fuel cells. These are... 

For the third column in a row, I am focusing on the conflict in the north-eastern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. This is because it poses a threat to the whole of Southern Africa, including... 

In my last column, I examined how the current conflict in Mozambique’s province of Cabo Delgado had come into being. To very briefly reiterate what I wrote in September, the Islamist insurgency is... 

It was Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky who famously and caustically remarked that “[you] may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you” (or words to that effect: I am quoting from... 

Once upon a time, there were people who honestly thought that the South African private sector maintained higher standards of honesty and ethics than the country’s public sector. And then the... 

Early this month, while briefing Parliament, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe dropped a bombshell. He announced a commitment to develop a roadmap for a programme to build new... 

Covid-19: anxiety is everywhere. We are all concerned about our friends and colleagues who are at high risk. And there is the stress of the lockdown itself. It is a darkly humorous thought that... 

Talk about living in “interesting times”! Actually, these would be better described as extraordinary times. Coming to work on the morning I wrote this column, I found that the normal traffic had... 

Will South Africa ever build a new nuclear power plant (NPP)? Well, and I hope the revelation doesn’t ruin the dramatic flow of my narrative, I haven’t a clue. I don’t think anyone does. There is a... 

January 20 saw the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London, attended by representatives of 21 African countries, including the Presidents of Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. That... 

The past few weeks have seen a series of important conferences in South Africa, as far as the aerospace and defence sectors are concerned. And the aerospace and defence sectors are a significant... 

Earlier this month, I got caught up in a traffic jam, in Sandton. I was in my car on my way to an appointment. And the traffic had effectively halted. Progress involved inching forward, but with... 

On August 20, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe made some interesting comments to journalists, regarding future nuclear energy in South Africa. “It comes back to a resolution we... 

In my previous column, I explained that, contrary to the impression created by sloppy analysis and lazy use of terminology, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), while being one of the most... 

There is a habit, among too many people, here and abroad, to lazily categorise China as a superpower, implying parity and balance vis-à-vis the United States. And yet the truth is that China is not... 

South Africa’s next general election will, provided no catastrophe intervenes, take place on May 8. That is only days away. Naturally, it is one of the dominant domestic stories in the media, with... 

Despite the concerns of Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, South Africa’s 2019 budget saw a real-terms increase in Government spending. Gross national debt will increase to about 60% in the financial... 

One of the enduring political-cultural legacies of the French Revolution (erupted 1789) was the adoption of the political terminology, and the concomitant division of politics, into “left” and... 

Hi! I’m back. First of all, I don’t think I can just pass over the absence of my column during the last two months without a word of explanation. The explanations are quite simple: in October I was... 

Last week saw the latest edition of Africa Aerospace and Defence, still the continent’s premier exhibition in this sector, attracting exhibitors and visitors from all over the world. And,... 

The official inauguration of the 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope array in the middle of this month was a wonderful landmark in the history of both science and technology in South Africa. It marked... 

One of the striking things about South Africa is how little interest the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has shown in transforming certain key institutions the country. Oh, there have been... 

Analysts say that the planet Earth’s rapidly-growing space economy could hit $600-billion by 2030 and $1-trillion by 2040. Clearly, the space economy, worth some $350-billion today, is growing... 

On April 7, Douma, in Syria, was subject to what appears to have been a chemical weapons attack. The Syrian Government has an independently-established (by the Organisation for the Prohibition of... 

There is a well-known slight misquotation of Karl Marx: History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. In the past few weeks, in international relations, we have seen... 

Well, Jacob Zuma is no longer President of the Republic of South Africa, following his “recall” (in effect, order to resign) by his political party, the African National Congress (ANC). The raid on... 

Hi, and Happy New Year! You will no doubt have noticed a new bye-line and a new photo with this column. But the brain is the same, the knowledge is the same and the writing style is unchanged. But... 

On November 7, France ran out of money. Or, rather, France ran out of its own money; that is, it ran out of all the money the French State had gathered in taxes and other imposts. Between November... 

Well, one must admit it was rather apposite timing. Only 12 or so hours after the closing of the country’s first Homeland Security Africa Conference (in Pretoria), gunmen in a car driving through... 

Roughly in the middle of this month (September), speaking on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of his luxury goods businesses holding company, Switzerland-based Compagnie Financière... 

The apparently never-ending culture wars in the US are ceasing to be depressing and becoming downright alarming, reaching a new low in the recent murderous terrorist-attack-by-vehicle in... 

To holidaymakers the Indian Ocean usually appears a balmy body of sea. But, over the horizon, out of sight, great political forces are moving across the ocean and its subsidiary seas and gulfs,... 

One of my most vivid memories is the time, years ago during the period of hyperinflation in Brazil, when my late wife (who was Brazilian) and I were on holiday in that country, and it came time to... 

Why does South Africa have a Ministry of State Security? (The official South African Government website refers to it as a Ministry, although it is also officially referred to as a Department.) Let... 

Some South Africans, with some knowledge of events in Brazil, have expressed a degree of envy at the successful impeachment, last year, of the President Dilma Rousseff. This was, in fact, the... 

Just about 15 months ago, on February 2, 2016, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb onboard an Airbus A321 airliner of Daallo Airlines some 15 to 20 minutes after it took off from Mogadishu Airport.... 

While much local media attention has been devoted to US President Donald Trump, there has been something that, from a South African perspective, was much more important. This was the outcome of the... 

The speech delivered on January 17 by British Prime Minister Theresa May on her government’s negotiating objectives for Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) – “Brexit” – contained nothing... 

One of the highest points of my career as a journalist happened, back in 1994, when I interviewed then Cuban President Fidel Castro, in Pretoria. He was attending the inauguration of President... 

Well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you. Now that we have US President-elect Donald Trump I feel entitled to remind you that, in my previous column, when many were assuming that rival candidate... 

Well, we are definitely living in interesting times, at home and abroad. China, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, has adopted a nationalist assertiveness in the East and especially South China... 

After a review that lasted some two months, British Prime Minister Theresa May gave the go-ahead for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant (NPP), which will be built by a partnership between...