Ray's Words
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Rules to prevent sexual harassment, encourage reporting & protect victims, signed off before chief justice’s retirement RAY HARTLE In one of his last official duties just a day before his retirement on August 31, former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo signed
Reporting on Eastern Cape Courts JUDGES & JUDGMENTS By RAY HARTLE The complaint of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape Judge-President Selby Mbenenge is likely to dominate news about the judiciary this year. Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is due to constitute
RAY HARTLE South Africa’s deputy chief justice Mandisa Maya, in the Bhisho high court on Friday to celebrate a hundred years of SA women lawyers, said the country’s judiciary would “very soon” have a sexual harassment policy to protect women
RAY HARTLE South Africa’s Judicial Service Commission will on Monday, 2 October 2023, discuss the referral to a judicial tribunal of a complaint of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape judge-president Selby Mbenenge. The JSC will meet in Sandton throughout the
Ray Hartle NEWS First Published Sunday, June 18 2023 in: Twenty-seven-year-old East London teacher Zimbini* was very excited when she fell pregnant in 2022 and looked forward to the birth of her son. “Part of me wanted to be pregnant
Long before the Special Tribunal handed down a final order in 2021 reviewing and setting aside the Eastern Cape health department’s 2020 tender for the supply of 100 motorcycle clinics, the Special Investigating Unit had already recommended to Premier Oscar
Manichaean / *adj. of or characterized by dualistic contrast or conflict between light or goodness, and darkness, chaos or evil.* Bernard Agulhas is no equivocating, ‘shades-of-grey’, accountant or auditor. That is how it should be, the former chief executive officer of
SIU approach had major negative implications for established motorcyle clinic firm.
BY RAY HARTLE Former Eastern Cape health head of department Dr Thobile Mbengashe, now a special advisor in the office of the premier (OTP), must face a disciplinary inquiry initiated by Premier Oscar Mabuyane over his alleged role in the
Zisanda Nkonkobe’s low haemoglobin count brought her to the brink of death when she was diagnosed earlier in September with auto-immune haemoglobin anaemia, a rare condition involving the breakdown of oxygen-carrying red blood cells through the body. Her haemoglobin count
(My statement here is in no way an attempt at swaying anyone. In fact, “spoiler alert”, you may wish to unfriend me or in any other way dissociate yourself from me after reading my list.) I have not yet given
The film Green Book, which won this year’s Oscar for best film, explores road travel through racist America by African-Americans in the segregation era. It is based on The Negro Motorist Green Book, a compendium volume published for 30
Journey through our past is key to our present Mkhuseli Khusta Jack is a son of our province and his book is the story of our land and our blood-soaked history Daily Dispatch 16 Feb 2019 RAY HARTLE Picture: ALAN
It’s going to be a solitary Friday pilgrimage. I have to meet a business associate in George about a property transaction and decide to spend an extra day traipsing around in the district between Oudtshoorn and Matjiesrivier, near where my
Finally – finally some acknowledgment in the Daily Dispatch that the ambulance drivers’ strike in the Eastern Cape has unnecessarily been responsible for the deaths of 6 people, including 3 young children. The figure includes at least one child due to travel
ANC Eastern Cape Provincial chairperson and MEC for economic affairs Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane has strongly criticised Mercedes Benz South Africa for its failure to appoint a black chief executive officer in its 60-year tenure in South Africa. The forthright message
At the end, what more could we have expected from SuperSport in the Ashwin Willemse moment – more correctly now called a saga? It’s really just all about the optics – the visual and the political. My gut instinct was
The Premier of the Eastern Cape, the honourable Phumulo Masualle, The MEC for Health, the honourable Helen Sauls-August The MEC for Finance and Economic Affairs, the honourable Lubabalo Mabuyane Dear Premier and Colleagues You may not be aware that in
STARBUCKS ‘beverage bias’, ‘frappuccino shaming’, ‘why do white people care so much about black people’s hair’, ‘why do these people hate me so much?’ If you have 20 minutes of sitting in a waiting room, have a listen to this
I really had to think very hard about my vote today (Wednesday) in the Ward 18 by-election in East London. Four parties were contesting the poll – the ANC, DA, COPE and EFF. It took me back to the first
When feeling aggrieved about getting a raw deal from a business, you don’t have to go for the jugular upfront. Instead, ramp things up slowly. If you are in a face-to-face or telephonic disagreement with a supplier or service provider,
‘When was the last time you peed, Mr Hartle?’ The question nearly hits me for six. I shake my head and gingerly reach over the counter for the little plastic cup proffered by the nurse and follow her directions into
If you want to talk about insurance, there’s no better place to start than prudential, capitalised or not. You never know when something will go wrong, so being prudent is a good thing. But sometimes, even insurance companies – not
If you thought the healthcare sector was generally good at protecting your private health records, you’d be right. They’re especially good at protecting your medical records from yourself. Patient confidentiality, record-keeping and access to information seem to constitute a
If we’re generally bad at holding service providers accountable for good service, we’re totally useless when it comes to dealing with providers in the healthcare sector. We’ve no one to blame but ourselves when we end up in abusive
How significant is the “Ashwin Willemse moment” for Supersport? And for South Africa? Willemse, on a live Supersport TV broadcast on Saturday evening of the rugby match between the Lions and Brumbies, accused his co-analysts Naas Botha and Nick Mallett,
I had about 95 percent of my gut (small bowel or intestine) removed in 2007. An embolus or blood clot had moved into my abdomen, causing my gut to turn gangrenous. It was the first clinical sign that my weak
This post will either resonate with you or seriously peeve you off: Do you think we complain too much or too little? The jury is still out on whether or not South Africans complain too much or too little about
I’ve had to ask myself – mainly because somebody else asked me – why I stand in support of Patricia de Lille’s fight with the DA. Is it a group thing? Perhaps – certainly if we’re talking about the group
It remains one of the most exhilarating days of my life – April 27, 1994. Voting for the first time. And this image, one of the most enduringly significant for me. Voting with all fellow black South Africans. Claiming our
A salute to Kholile Nzo for standing up on a couple of important principles relating to a proposal to remunerate board members of the Mandela Bay Development Agency. I’m embarrassed to admit that I was one of the excited ones
Our pharmaceutical companies need close monitoring. But it turns out there is a massive backlog in official Government approvals for new drugs and technologies. This is inexcusable. We need a regulator that works effectively in the interests of the
Netcare Group, which is South Africa’s biggest private provider of hospital services, has decided to exit (as some wags have noted, Nexit) from Britain, where it has been invested since 2006 in 57 hospitals through General Healthcare Group. If nothing
None of us can predict with any degree of certainty how our lives might turn out from one moment to another, whether by conscious election or serendipity. We choose actions every minute that might have immediate, long-term implications, while sinking
I have finally reached an agreement with the SA Revenue Services (SARS) on settling a tax assessment. It is a substantial amount of money that fell due in the wake of the global recession, which crippled many entrepreneurs and small
The confirmation of the source of last year’s outbreak of #Listeriosis in our country which has been the cause of 180 deaths is at once a relief and demands answers to more questions. There has been some criticism of the national
In almost 10 years of working as a journalist up to 1994, I never ever faced a formal complaint to my bosses or the industry watchdog, criminal charges or a civil lawsuit, from the subject of a story. It’s not
By RAY HARTLE The axe has finally fallen on recalcitrant East London magistrate Xoliswa Stuurman. And the city’s chief magistrate Valerie Gqiba’s head is also on the block, possibly as a result of the Stuurman fallout. Stuurman was dismissed by
Dismissed East London magistrate Xoliswa Stuurman was known for her scathing rebukes of those who crossed her. The presiding officer at her disciplinary hearing, Germiston magistrate Mumtaz Dawray held that Stuurman’s “nasty remarks and unpleasant language” were aggravating factors leading
Former East London candidate attorney Matthew Bell, one of the complainants in ex-magistrate Xoliswa Stuurman’s disciplinary tribunal, has welcomed her dismissal from the bench, saying the public at large and legal professionals had “suffered under the abuse of power”. Bell
By RAY HARTLE In his history of “The ANC in Exile”, Stephen Ellis suggested that the story of the ANC in government since 1994 inevitably caused people including himself, to ask new questions about its past “or to place new
Imagine if Jacob Zuma had to tell his truth, had to honestly explain why he had to vacate the office of President of South Africa, told us what propelled him to act in the way he did, how and why
By RAY HARTLE New Judge-President of the Eastern Cape Selby Mfanelo Mbenenge may be the master of understatement when he says some of the disputes that come before the high courts of the province are the result of failure. The
Jacob Zuma has fancied himself as a Shakespeare buff this year, reciting lines from the Bard’s Julius Caesar and Macbeth plays at the official Youth Day commemoration in Ventersdorp. His soliloquy did not include the line in Julius Caesar, uttered
A spat has erupted between the Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi and the SA Medical Association which represents medical doctors, over the availability and filling of vacancies for doctors in the public sector. Motsoaledi came out guns blazing over criticism
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