This month marks 10 years since the International Criminal Court first opened its doors at The Hague in Netherlands. The court was created under the Rome Statute to prosecute serious international crimes like war crimes and crimes against humanity. It has 121 member nations, with Guatemala being the latest. With a decade gone since the […]
Isaac Mangena
Isaac Mangena is a Chapter Nine Communicator slash activist. He has spent much of the past ten years of his life in a newsroom. He is a former TV and Newspaper journalist who focuses on African and international news. He previously worked for Media24 and Agence France-Presse. Isaac holds a BA Psychology degree from the University of the North (now Limpopo). He reads, writes and critique – a lot.
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
ANC spaza xenophobia
I took a taxi a few days ago and listened to a conversation between two women and the taxi driver. They were talking about the mushrooming of foreign business owners in the township. The taxi was driving into Alexandra, which has seen an increase in Pakistani and Somali businesses recently. Almost every corner house has […]
Posted inBusiness, General, News/Politics
Wage subsidy: Cosatu doesn’t care about the youth
A drive on a weekday morning around the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg will reveal to you the real face of unemployment in South Africa. On the corners of the many avenues in this sprawling township where I grew up, young men and women roam the streets. Some play dice and morabaraba and some are […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, Sport
These Chinese football imports are not fong-kong
The rate at which world top football stars are migrating to China, I am starting to believe Sepp Blatter that maybe, just maybe football began in the communist state. The latest this week was former Chelsea and Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba who decided to part ways with the Yorkshire pudding for the Shenghai sushi. […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Reshuffling: Zuma missed the jokers
They say in every war there are casualties, and it would seem President Jacob Zuma has gone to war far too many times, leaving a trail of body bags in his wake. This week the man from Nkandla caught many, including those in the ruling party, by surprise when he announced a cabinet reshuffle at […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Zuma should beware the No.10 jersey in the NEC
He is a hard worker, ambitious, charismatic, an intellectual, a prolific spinner and he’s very rich. He can also be a schemer of note. These are the characteristics of member No. 10 in the ruling ANC’s current National Executive Committee. He also has the business acumen of Mitt Romney and presidential aspirations one can liken […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Murray’s painting mirrors Zuma’s life
I had already started writing my angry views about my president unzipped and exposed. When I started, I wrote it as a man, a black man, Saartjie Baartman’s brother, as someone raised by my grandmother with a moral stick. And I had joined in solidarity with those who are angry about the way President Jacob […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Let’s think about our children
The story of Rego Modise of Rustenburg has me worried about the future of our kids, black and white, in South Africa. Rego is a 17-year-old black school girl who loves playing hockey as a sport. She sees herself as a professional hockey player one day, perhaps even representing South Africa in future Olympic games. […]
Posted inGeneral
Press clubs are no places for politicans, period
I was hurt and angry when officials from the ruling party called me and my colleagues the “real opposition” of the ANC. That was a few months ago when ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe and other senior officials were at pains to explain why they thought a media appeals tribunal and other oppressive statutes would […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Gang rape, jackrolling, lepanta: a societal problem
I grew up in a village outside Polokwane in Limpopo. At school and in the community we would always hear older boys talking about lepanta. As a young boy, I knew lepanta to be a Sotho word for “belt”. I soon learnt that it was coined by boys in the street corners to mean “when […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Water woes: Government must act fast
In an unexpected move by former president Thabo Mbeki four years ago, he apologised for what he knew he could have acted on earlier, but didn’t. It was at the time when the term “load shedding” became fashionable because it was dawning on everyone, including Mbeki, that the country was heading for darkness. Mbeki gathered […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The ICC: Justice denied to Gaza victims
There was a sense of hope across the world in 1998 when 120 countries signed a treaty that would establish an international court. This court would, among others, follow noble principles to protect citizens from violence and abuse by their own governments, rebels or even foreign nations. The International Criminal Court which was to be […]