Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
When my ex-partner, the mother of our two children, both younger than 10, drove out the gates with the children seven years ago, things were amicable between us. I helped move large items to the house her father had bought her 15 minutes away; she emailed me for comfort; and we checked in on each other.
I had no idea I was looking at a seven-year journey of lost work and vexatious litigation aimed at denying the primary-parenting relationship between my daughter and myself, and obstructing the strong bond I had with my son.
Separating or divorcing with children involved can bring out the worst in people, resulting in the weaponisation of children against the other parent. After five long years of fighting for access to my daughter and trying to agree on a fair monthly maintenance in every court you may have heard of – children’s, maintenance, regional and the high court – I was financially and emotionally wiped out.
The past few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster for news publishers in Australia as the battle to strongarm the biggest internet proprietors got real.
Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
Even if the workings of State Capture are not well understood, its impact has been felt by the SA taxpayer; public funds earmarked for crucial service delivery programmes have been diverted to support financially distressed SOEs.
In the State Capture story, there are villains and heroes. Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan still enjoys hero status and the history books will acknowledge his bravery for speaking out against a kleptocratic state under Jacob Zuma – even when it wasn’t popular to do so.
But the history books will also acknow
ledge Gordhan for being a key public servant since SA transitioned to democracy in 1994, because he was the SARS Commissioner, headed the Finance Ministry (twice) and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. In other words, he had a grip on the levers of power and state decision-making.