Terry Bell

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Reflections of a Wayward Boy (12)

December 14, 2020

Published at: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-12-13-wayward-boy-stumbling-into-exile-on-a-wing-and-a-prayer-from-dominee-du-toit/ Despite my nervousness, getting into exile over Easter of April, 1965, turned out to be remarkably easy. Less than a week after disappearing from Johannesburg, I was in Salisbury (Harare) in what was then Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). But I was broke and needed a job. Then, within weeks, aided by blind luck […]

Grim year for labour — and more turbulence ahead

December 13, 2020

Much was made this week of the “stronger-than-forecast rebound” in economic performance in the third quarter of the year, yet it was another case of clutching at straws of optimism. With the easing of lockdown regulations and the return to work of more employees, an improvement was inevitable, but it came off a very low […]

The world is yours — for a price

November 29, 2020

The flight of the self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, in the process forgoing R400,000 in bail money, a Gulf Steam jet aircraft and a R5.5 million mansion, revealed how, with enough money, national borders become insignificant. On the other hand, working people in many regions of the world are being increasingly trapped not […]

Arrest, detention & catharsis

November 25, 2020

Reflections of a Wayward Boy 11 (Also available at: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-11-23-reflections-of-a-wayward-boy-gerald-ludi-and-the-casual-brutality-of-the-security-police/) Anyone who has been arrested in a midnight raid, held in solitary confinement, threatened with dire consequences and interrogated, probably emerges at least slightly unhinged. Especially when it becomes obvious that a journalist colleague was a police spy. That certainly applied in my case, but […]

The virus is not to blame

November 15, 2020

(First published in City Press and on Fin24) Economic recovery. Economic growth. That is what is now being promoted in the wake of the devastation caused by the responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. But what is really required in South Africa is social reconstruction to try to remedy the extraordinary damage done to millions of […]

The challenge of real democracy

November 14, 2020

(Available online at: https://www.news24.com/fin24/opinion/inside-labour-a-wake-up-call-for-democracy-20201113) There are two crucial lessons to be learned from the political and electoral shambles in the United States: the first about what democracy really means and, the second, why nationalism in all its forms is a serious threat to all. Democracy is clearly defined in the opening line of an old […]

Put the ‘devastating’ blame where it belongs

October 31, 2020

First produced in City Press, South Africa Economic recovery. Economic growth. That is what is now being promoted in the wake of the devastation caused by the responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. But what is really required in South Africa is social reconstruction to try to remedy the extraordinary damage done to millions of mainly […]

Reflections of a wayward boy 10

October 31, 2020

Also available on: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-10-29-reflections-of-a-wayward-boy-how-i-tumbled-a-notorious-apartheid-police-spy/ When the security branch (SB) swooped in July 3,1964, no newspaper had a picture of me. I had seen to that as a precaution should I ever be on the run. Yet, as I soon discovered, the police had veritable photo albums of everyone. However, the Rand Daily Mail did have […]