Education, it turns out, is the public litmus test of how well the black government is doing, even if everything else falls apart

Imagine you’re an NSC candidate in 2025, that examination everyone tells you is a make-or-break test of your future. Then you hear in the media that three papers leaked — mathematics, physical science and English home language.

The BMW M5 hybrid model (2025) goes from 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds. Asking that my beloved 1976 VW Beetle achieves the same acceleration in less than a day is the kind of fantasy that keeps comedians in business.

It is starting to get ugly out there again. Before, the hunt for foreign nationals happened on the streets of the townships where spaza shops were set alight or in the rural vineyard areas that made seasonal workers from other African countries the target

In a memorable line from a favourite movie, Jaffar muses of Aladdin “beneath the dirt and patches you are a diamond in the rough”.

It’s that time of the year again when about 1.13-million grade 9 pupils in SA must make their subject choices for the senior phase, the last three years of high school.

I have come to the end of an exhausting but fulfilling year in which I taught both high school science (chemistry) and university undergraduates (education policy). This experience has taught me seven vital lessons.

I have been thoroughly traumatised by Cape Flats funerals these past few months. Too many of my friends and schoolmates are dropping dead — “it’s your age group, dad” — offers my daughter in a reassuring voice. That’s not the problem; it’s how they go.

I am sick and tired of political performance in South Africa. We dance, sing and protest before we think. The routines are now familiar. Something bad happens. Protestors show up with threatening behaviour.

Three generations around the day-after-Christmas table and the discussion inevitably turns to politics.How are you going to vote? I asked as the left-over meats made it onto ciabatta breads.One of the nieces is fast, that’s my secret. However, that commitment hardly lasts a few seconds when others let loose.