In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser

EFF MPs disrupted parliament on Thursday, trying to prevent President Cyril Ramaphosa from delivering the presidency budget speech. It all turned into chaos, and with EFF MPs being ejected. The delivery of the president's speech was delayed by over an hour. I think the EFF made a strategic error. And that is putting it lightly. Listen to this latest edition of In The Ring With Eusebius McKais...

I was joined by two of your favourite guests of mine on this podcast, Lance Claasen (who is now full-time back in radio as GM of Rise FM) & Thabo Shole-Mashao (former journalist with massive news experience, and now working as a sought after strategist in public relations, media management and training, etc). We debated whether or not the claims by former spy boss Arthur Fraser that president...

Here's a summary of what well-respected analyst and author Songezo Zibi's new book, Manifesto: A New Vision for South Africa, is about. You want to buy it. Definitely. And, more importantly, you want to engage it actively, and debate the main contours of his manifesto  with your peers. Have a listen to my comments in this podcast, explaining why I recommend this book, and doing so strong...

I asked former finance minister Trevor Manuel to join me, to chat about a defamation case he has initiated against broadcaster JJ Tabane. It .... was ... lit. The tone wasn't lit, but listen carefully to every word. I think there will be some explosive debate and discussion about what Manuel said to me in this interview.  For once, I'm not gonna summarise the essence of his claims. CLICK...

My goodness. Thando Pato has been through A LOT, and she has left it all on the pages of her 'sober lit' memoir, On The Rocks: Memoir of a High-Functioning Alcoholic.  I invited her to come and share her multiple journeys, from her toxic relationship with alcohol, battling to accept she is an alcoholic because of the shame and self-shame attached to the word; to her diagnosis of breast c...

Haji Mohamed Dawjee has written a fantastic second essay collection, Here's The Thing, as a follow-up on her well-received first collection, Sorry, Not Sorry. I invited her to chat to me about her latest book. It spans many themes, from parenting to mental health, cancel culture and online mob attacks, complex relationships with our parents, suicidality, and much more. I have written a review...

It is weird to write about brilliant actor Jamie Bartlett in the past tense. He was a larger than life human, and an astounding actor. I profiled him a few times over the years, and we had many conversations offline, sometimes clubbing in Melville. In this podcast, I share some of his reflections, in his own distinctive voice, on so many topics from the burden of fame, dealing with PTSD, his love...

I invited Daily Maverick's Mark Heywood (himself an author, and also a well-known activist who has spent decades fighting for justice) to join me to talk about Young Mungo, the second novel written by brilliant Douglas Stuart. Stuart won the Booker Prize for his stunning debut, Shuggie Bain. I couldn't ask for a better guest than Mark. He has a deep love of literature and of reading - he...

The law only allows three exceptions to the use of symbols of hate such as the old SA flag. These exceptions include the usage of the symbol for purposes of bona fide artistic ends, academic endeavour or journalism. The gratuitous display of the old SA flag, for these reasons, has been declared as constituting hate speech. AfriForum is hoping to persuade the supreme court of appeal that general fr...

We often bitch and moan about the state of our politics. Justifiably so. There are glaring weaknesses in all of our main political parties- from the governing African National Congress to the two biggest opposition parties, Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters. Many smaller parties emerged in recent years, some doing well during the recent local government elections, but even they com...

Afriforum is hiding behind free speech rights in order to justify their nostalgia for apartheid. In this episode of In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser I explain why the legal debate is less important than the political and moral debates. I explain why we should be concerned about anyone who desires to cling on to symbols of hate, symbols of trampling on black people's dignity. There are issue...

I asked University of Cape Town's Jacques Rousseau (lecturer in critical thinking and ethics) to help me puzzle through the latest instantiation of the free speech debate. It's been sparked by the news that Elon Musk, who describes himself as a free speech absolutist (whatever that means), is buying Twitter.  The difficulties are several: at a theoretical or principled level, what kinds...

In this edition of In The Ring, I explain two ways in which you should NOT try to tackle racism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression in the workplace and elsewhere. There is a tendency to look for 'quick fixes', and I give examples of what these mistakes are. I outline, as an alternative, a different strategic pathway for companies to embark on, if they are genuinely committed to tr...

Professor Sarojini Nadar (University of Western Cape) responded( https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-daily/opinion-and-analysis/2022-04-16-god-grief-and-good-friday-a-response-to-eusebius-mckaiser/?fbclid=IwAR0SioBDrOuKohEuxvKf2-i51Uvrtz2ow9V8X43wWBwzCero5zZ-1P8p3iI ) to an article in which I had argued that the God I was taught about in Catholiism does not exist ( https://www.timeslive.co.za...

Some people are upset by a recent article I wrote (  https://www.timeslive.co.za/ideas/2022-04-15-eusebius-mckaiser-i-was-taught-god-exists-that-is-a-lie-heres-why/ ) in which I had argued that evil is imcompatible with God's alleged omnisience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence. Many of the responses to me were sheer bile, and one of them appealed to 'free will' as an explanation of...

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS STRONG AND SOMETIMES GRAPHIC LANGUAGE INCLUDING DESCRIPTIONS OF RACISM/COLOURISM, VIOLENCE AND SPECIFICALLY SEXUAL VIOLENCE  In this episode of In The Ring, I hosted Ismail Lagardien, the author of Too White To Be Coloured, Too Coloured To Be White. Lagardien's book is painfully compelling as it mixes stories from a fascinating life he has lived, with in...

I have already told you on social media just how compelling Nikolaos Kirkinis' biography of former professional footballer Junior Khayne is. You can also check out my written review ( https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-daily/opinion-and-analysis/2022-03-27-book-review-the-junior-khanye-story-nimble-on-the-field-tripping-off-it/ ) of this book, Ghetto Ninja: The Junior Khanye Story.  In...

Yesterday, former president Jacob Zuma suffered another legal setback when the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed his application for leave to appeal his lower court failure to delay his corruption trial further. What was Zuma hoping for? Why is he delaying getting his day in court on the main corruption charges? What, truly, is going on here? I was joined by excellent senior legal journalist Karyn...

I think Will Smith and Chris Rock should both be criticised for what happened at the Oscars. I argued for this viewpoint on TimesLIVE ( https://www.timeslive.co.za/ideas/2022-03-28-eusebius-mckaiser-heres-why-chris-rock-and-will-smith-deserve-neither-praise-nor-defence/ ) In this edition of In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser, I summarise my argument but go further and also expand on responses to c...

There can be no doubt, after the local government election results of last year, that the governing African National Congress is in deep political trouble. Many analysts take for granted that in 2024 there is a real possibility of the ANC getting less than 50% of the national vote, ushering in an era of coalition politics both nationally and provincially. This kind of prediction is premised on the...

I have had the pressure and privilege, for more than ten years, of serving on many bursary and scholarship selection committees. I also, before that, had applied for many bursaries and scholarships myself - during high school and throughout university. Not everyone knows how to go about constructing an application that has decent odds of succeeding. In this episode of In The Ring, I draw on my man...

I end off my short audio contributions for anti-racism week by explaining why the END GOAL should be to arrive in an anti-racist society and not a non-racial society. While we shouldn't be distracted by language  debates - and rather focus on materially changing society - I do think it is useful to explain my general unhappiness with the term or concept of non-racialism and my preference for...

Have you considered one painful aspect of anti-black racism that we really do not like talking about - internalised oppression? In today's short audio contribution to anti-racism week I raise some examples of internalised oppression with a view to sparking an intra-black dialogue about the deep psychological violence of white supremacy, violence so enormous that even when whites aren't a...

Now former Democratic Alliance politician and leader Mbali Ntuli explained in detail her reasons for exiting both the party and the political stage. On Eusebius on TimesLIVE, which we also cross-post here on In The Ring, she painted a picture of a political culture that had taken root within the DA that is factionalist in nature, leading to the "weaponising" of party structures and proce...

Continuing this week's daily nuggets in response to anti-racism week, today I speak directly to white allies in the fight for racial justice. There are useful and not-so-useful ways of responding to the reality of anti-black racism. This short audio entry helps white allies to think more carefully about the demands of allyship