“Democracy is constructed like an edifice, freedom by freedom, right by right, until it reaches its snapping point.” When Senegal’s former president Abdoulaye Wade prophetically coined this saying years ago, he definitely didn’t have the 25th of March 2012 in his mind as the day when he would unceremoniously “snap”. The 85-year-old was trounced by […]
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
Sharpeville: Shame on you, ANC
Moving the commemoration of the Sharpeville massacre from its historic base is nothing more than an insult to those who laid down their lives. For the past 21 years, Sharpeville Day, as the day was known, was celebrated in Sharpeville, the place where 69 people lost their lives fighting for the freedoms and liberties we […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
MDG target for water met but our taps still run dry
A United Nations and World Health Organisation report released last week (South Africa’s national water week) has claimed a near victory in achieving one of the most important Millennium Development Goals: making drinking water accessible to millions of the poor. According to the report, titled Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation 2012, “over two billion […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Licensed to kill: US soldiers in Afghanistan
My colleague Sokhu Sibiya recently said to me that American children are always taught from a young age in their living rooms that they are superior to any other nation in the world. She was responding to the discussion we were having about the recent killing of 16 civilians in Kandahar, Afghanistan. “They watch movies, […]