Bloem is Brilliant - published in Autumn 2014 FH&L magazine

Nick van der Leek Experimenting With Underwater Photographer

We should be paying more in social grants, not less BY NICK VAN DER LEEK, Business Day, March 13, 2014

SOCIAL grants are a hot potato. Only one in five South Africans, or 10.7-million people, are employed in the formal sector. The real meat-and-potato taxes come from this group.In his recent budget speech, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said that by 2016-17, 16.7-million people would be eligible to receive social assistance grants. But for how long can South Africa’s already beleaguered workforce shoulder the burden of giving away hard-earned tax money — R410bn over three years — to almost twice as many people without a source of income? More to the point, should they? The answer is yes.  Read the rest here.

Redberry Farm, George, published in March 2014 Sawubona Insider's Guide

Oscar and Reeva - A Loving Couple? [Published on DestinyMan.com, March 2014]

Was Reeva Steenkamp trying to slow down the advances of 'the fastest man with no legs'? We take a closer look at their relationship

The critical issue in Oscar Pistorius’ murder trial is intention — did her intentionally kill Reeva? One commentator nailed it when he said people don’t just pick up a weapon and start firing it at someone. There is a ‘cascade of vectors’ which can lie behind a relationship — specific circumstances can spark something in the psyche, causing an outburst, sometimes with bloody and devastating consequences.

What were those vectors in Oscar’s case?

The popular image of Oscar is that of a sauve, self-assured, confident ladies’ man or as Reeva herself once put it: “Oscar’s a very, very sexy boy . . . But . . . ja, he’s a gentleman.”

Yet when you read what Reeva’s ‘Johannesburg dad’ Cecil Myers says about Oscar, a different picture emerges. Shortly after Reeva was killed, a distraught Myers told UK newspaper The Telegraph: “He kept pestering her, phoning and phoning and phoning her. Oscar was hasty and impatient and very moody – that’s my impression of him.”

It stands to reason that Oscar must have been feeling the pressure to keep his celebrity flame burning as brightly as possible.

Evidence emerging in media reports suggests that Oscar suffered from insomnia...

Read the rest here.