Kevin Ritchie

It hasn’t been perfect but South Africa’s vaccine roll-out is gathering steam

There is still a sizeable growth in vaccine hesitancy – and die-hard anti-vaxxers, many of whom would rather pour sheep dip down their gullets and destroy their livers than take the risk of getting vaccinated.

Keep journalism honest – no matter how ugly the truth

If the media is properly free and independent, there’s going to come a time when it asks questions and runs stories that are deeply discomfiting, shaking our cosseted social media echo chambers.

We know what the cost of strong man politics is, we’re paying for it right now

What the wall-to-wall real media coverage on all channels has shown is that this latest wave of unrest has very little to do with outrage over the “people’s president” sitting in jail on a contempt charge.

Let’s vaccinate as many people as possible, we can worry about the anti-vaxxers later

There’s more risk in developing blood clots sitting on your arse eating a boerewors roll and drinking a beer as you watch the rugby than there is in getting vaccinated.

The government is trying to square the endless circle of lives vs livelihoods

CYRIL Ramaphosa must have he thought he was the anti-Christ this week. Well he was for the anti-vaxxers, but as they say in Afrikaans, if you don’t want to listen, you’ve to feel it. As the inimitable talk show host Lester Kiewit tweeted on Monday morning, finding anyone who didn’t break a single third-wave preventionContinue reading “The government is trying to square the endless circle of lives vs livelihoods”

The president’s joke that fell flat

Someone, he deadpanned on live TV, had stolen his iPad. Could they return it?

10 babies – someone should have fact-checked

This was another bad week for South African journalism – in a year that’s already had its share. After crowing of a world exclusive for more than a week, editor Piet Rampedi was forced to concede that he had been duped about a Tembisa woman giving birth to 10 babies. His humiliation was complete whenContinue reading “10 babies – someone should have fact-checked”