By Mogale Moganedi If you were to ever ask a father that question you’d probably be kicked out of the house and maybe even given a free ride to somewhere in the neighbourhood of hell. Think of it though, isn’t that what is actually at the heart of all lobola negotiations? For those not familiar […]
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Posted inNews/Politics
Dear Jonathan ‘Balls of Steel’ Shapiro
By Lukhona Mnguni I by no means wish to call you balls, even though many out there wish to call you such. Just that one of the Mail & Guardian journalists felt it appropriate to say you have “balls of steel” upon seeing the cartoon that got tongues wagging. You did after all unambiguously call […]
Posted inNews/Politics
South Africa’s democratic project: Managing the battles within
By Thapelo Tselapedi It is interesting to note that SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande, in contrast to Kgalema Motlanthe, has spoken rather favourably about the concept of a second transition. In an interview with Mandy Rossouw from City Press, Nzimande made the ‘revelation’ that “the deepening of our democracy cannot be taken any further if we […]
Posted inGeneral
The death of South African student politics
by Jordan Griffiths South Africa has a proud tradition of radical and innovative student politics. This is the country of Steve Biko’s SASO, the National Union of South African Students (Nusas), the detention and banning of student activists like Patrick Duncan and Ian Robertson, and the rise of student leaders like Tony Leon – who […]
Posted inBusiness
The non-payment threat of the working class
By Themba Mbatha We have all accepted that the state’s economic preoccupation in the coming years should be the pursuit of a developmental state. To that end, President Jacob Zuma announced in the State of the Nation address an unprecedented public infrastructure spending programme to achieve the objectives of a developmental state. The estimated R800-billion […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Grading the ANC policy document on education
By Robyn Clark In March 2012, the ANC released a series of documents intended to stimulate discussion around what the ANC has achieved over the last 18 years in South Africa, and what it should further achieve in the future. The aim of the documents is to encourage discussions around the policy process, which will […]
Posted inGeneral
South Korea’s national obsession with education
By Deva Lee On Monday mornings, I always ask my students how their weekend was. I expect tales of teenage parties and perhaps a family picnic, but am usually disappointed. Most of the time they tell me they did not have a good weekend, and that they are tired and sad. “Why?” I ask, remembering […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zimbabwe 2013 elections: Necessities and options
By Discent Bajila In 2006, Professor Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo wrote, “That Mugabe must go is thus no longer a dismissible opposition slogan but a strategic necessity that desperately needs urgent legal and constitutional action by Mugabe himself.” Five years down the line, political events might have connived with each other and thrown the learned Mlevu […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Refugees, the American dream and a war for Cape freedom
By Shafinaaz Hassim It seems as though, just like tragic Alice in Wander-land, we’ve all fallen down some obscure rabbit hole in South Africa. It’s not impossible, given our national heritage of mining shafts, and it must have happened at some point during the last few weeks while toyi-toying in Twitterville or outside the ConCourt […]
Posted inGeneral
Finding heart beyond heat and ice
By Barbara Nussbaum South Africa’s high drama over Speargate has touched people deeply. Opinions have been thrown in every direction, from every corner. As we engage further in public debate in the media, we need individually and collectively to identify the many layers that make the complexity of the moment so profound. We need to […]
Posted inGeneral
Joyce Banda: Not your average president
By Anneke Meerkotter If you do a search of Joyce Banda’s speech on May 18 2012, you will find a range of international media articles with headlines such as “Malawi president vows to repeal gay ban” (BBC, Huffington Post); “Malawi to overturn homosexual ban” (Guardian); “Malawi president to repeal gay laws” (Al-Jazeera) or “Malawi’s Banda […]
Posted inGeneral
Dignity in la-la land: Why anybody can’t paint anybody’s penis
By Leonhard Praeg We all know that political liberals live in a la-la land that hovers, somewhat like a virtual reality, over the real geography of political time and space. For citizens of la-la land “freedom of expression” is the same in South Africa as it is in Zimbabwe as it is in New Zealand, […]