Christi van der Westhuizen

Déjà vu — again. And of a particularly nasty variety too. After refusing to apologise for inciting violence by saying he’d “kill” for ANC president Jacob Zuma, ANCYL president Julius Malema promised not to use the word “kill” in public again. So, now he’s gone and used the word “eliminate”. The last time we were […]

This is us. No miracle nation. No rainbow nation. Just us: violent; intolerant of difference — hitting where it hurts. Let’s not try to sweet-talk ourselves. This is who we are. Let’s look ourselves in the eye. We are lurching from crisis to crisis at every level of our society, the latest being the extremes […]

I recently wrote an essay where I explored the question in the heading, one that is equally applicable to English-speaking white people in South Africa. The racist incident at the University of the Free State makes this question relevant yet again, as do the Skielik killings, following on a range of other examples of white-on-black […]

What is happening to the ANC? Raw power politics has replaced principle. Where are the women and men of heart and reason to raise their voices within the party now? Too few; too overrun by a new brand of leadership that has tasted state power and wants more of it, unfettered. Maybe this is why […]

Much focus has been placed on personalities in the efforts to understand the contestation between President Thabo Mbeki and ANC president Jacob Zuma. But this battle is primarily a contestation of ideas. On the one end is the hodgepodge of the Zuma motley crew, combining Cosatu’s social democratic capitalism and urban worker orientation; the ANC […]