The timing of United States President Barack Obama’s two-day state visit to South Africa was less than ideal. Overshadowing the political arena was a looming, distracting historical backdrop: former president Nelson Mandela’s faltering but determined struggle to live. Both leaders were acutely aware that they had to avoid any perception of insensitivity to the prevailing […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
The arms trade treaty: Panacea or paradigm-shift in addressing mass atrocities?
By Clare da Silva and Sara Kendall The arms trade treaty, which was adopted during the United Nations General Assembly’s session in early April, opened for signature on June 3 at the organisation’s headquarters in New York. Already 73 states have signed the treaty. After years of negotiation and drafting, the treaty represents the first […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
The hidden food security crisis in South Africa
By Refiloe Joala As a nation I believe we have made a concerted effort of doing away with the overplayed notion of an Africa that conjures up images of hungry children with flies around their faces staring blankly into a camera lens. Although in the case of South Africa, one would imagine images of endless […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Iranian elections hail new era of dialogue
The ushering to power of a “reformist” in Iran’s recent elections happened not because of the government influence, but in spite of it. Having the stigma of a doubtful presidential election result from 2010 many experts and Iran watchers expected similar problems with last week’s election. But with an estimated 50% of Iran’s 50 million registered […]
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For the love of Mandela
By Derek Hook How should one approach the obsessive media speculation concerning Nelson Mandela’s declining health and approaching death? Such commentary as a rule wavers between requests that we respect Mandela’s privacy, honour the appropriate cultural customs and an unrelenting — and at times prurient — hunger for ever more details pertaining to Mandela and […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The trouble with liberals
The word liberal traces its history back to the Latin liber, which means “free”. Author and founding member of the Liberal Party in South Africa, Alan Paton, described this body of thought as such: “By liberalism I don’t mean the creed of any party or any century. I mean a generosity of spirit, a tolerance […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Mandela for blacks is different to Mandela for whites
As former president Nelson Mandela lies sick in hospital the narrative of what he will represent to future generations will, without a doubt, take a pendulum swing between two opposing sides. As we have all come to accept his inevitable departure, we find ourselves asking what we shall tell our kids about Mandela. Will whites […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Mandela – what lies beneath?
By Sipho Singiswa It may be hard for many to gracefully accept or admit, as has been an African tradition, that when Madiba has decided he is ready to go meet his ancestors or when they call him, only he will know when best to go. I am writing in response to all the liberal […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Letting go of Madiba requires getting him in the first place
It’s become ubiquitous over the last three weeks, but the Zapiro cartoon of a sad South Africa sitting at the bedside of an ailing Nelson Mandela still touches. “I know it’s hard, but we have to start letting go”, it says in the speech bubble above his head. Madiba still lives, but his nearing end […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Obama, women and hope
There I sat, five hours after leaving home, sunburned and wind chapped. I was hungry and thirsty and had spoken about engineering and women’s rights and weddings and which city in South Africa was the best. I had travelled thousands of kilometres the day before, and despite the anticipated excitement, at that moment I just […]
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Why I am not sad about Nelson Mandela
I am not sad about Nelson Mandela. I am surprised by this, because I expected to be, and for a long time I was. But now I am not, and I have been trying to work out why. Oh, I am sad about a lot of things. I am sad that he is old and […]
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Nelson Mandela: A giant leaves the world to pygmies
“That man is as healthy as a horse and as tough as they come. He’ll live to be a 100.” It was 1978 and prisoner 46664, Nelson Rolihlala Mandela, had just turned 60. The speaker was a delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who, by virtue of international law, was twice […]