By Athambile Masola Recently, in preparation for my Masters thesis, I have been observing Grade 1 classes in Grahamstown schools. This has helped me get a feel for the reality of classroom conditions in the impoverished schools in the town, along with the concerns of teachers. The surrounding context of these schools is not the […]
Mandela Rhodes Scholars
Mandela Rhodes Scholars who feature on this page are all recipients of The Mandela Rhodes Scholarship, awarded by The Mandela Rhodes Foundation, and are members of The Mandela Rhodes Community.
The Mandela Rhodes Community was started by recipients of the scholarship, and is a growing network of young African leaders in different sectors. The Mandela Rhodes Community is comprised of students and professionals from various backgrounds, fields of study and areas of interest. Their commonality is the set of guiding principles instilled through The Mandela Rhodes Scholarship program: education, leadership, reconciliation, and social entrepreneurship.
All members of The Mandela Rhodes Community have displayed some form of involvement in each of these domains.
The Community has the purpose of mobilising its members and partners to collaborate in establishing a growing network of engaged and active leaders through dialogue and project support
[The Mandela Rhodes Scholarship is open to all African students and allows for postgraduate studies at any institution in South Africa. See The Mandela Rhodes Foundation for further details.]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Does missing laptop plus two black people add up to guilty?
By Thabang Tlaka It was a beautiful summer afternoon so my aunt, an employee of the University of Pretoria and I, a student at the university, decided to sit on a bench and enjoy the late afternoon sun. Suddenly, a man came running out of the Theology building behind us. Clearly panicking and confused, he […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Culture evolves, polygamists haven’t
By Zuki Mqolomba Let me dare say that one cannot be a Marxist-Leninist cadre in pursuit of a non-sexist and equal society while standing in defence of a cultural practice designed intrinsically to institutionalise narrow chauvinism in postmodern South Africa. The sudden resurrection of polygamous practice amongst middle-class ranks comes in tandem with the emergence […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Julius and Visagie are mirror images of our fractured society
By Zukiswa Mqolomba Analysis of South African politics has often been overshadowed and reduced to the politics of cult personalities, sex, drugs and power-politicking. Analysis has often lacked the lustre of critical analysis and in its context. Far too often, political analysts have pursued sound-bite analysis that “sells” to capture the imaginations and the fears […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Juju’s globetrotting — for what?
By Suntosh Pillay Truth is always stranger than fiction. Malema, after all, went to Zimbabwe to learn economics from Robert Mugabe. In fact, the ANC Youth League’s “study-tour programme”, where eight of Malema’s cronies will travel to China, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba, to “learn” how these countries have fared in nationalisation projects, is absurd. […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
The centre cannot hold: Our national paralysis
By Zukiswa Mqolomba We’ve seen a statesman with multiple wives and a girlfriend(s) with just under 20 kids unashamedly defend his right to engage in extramarital sex with a friend’s daughter, fathering her child. We’ve watched state “militia” in the form of SAPS officials (no, excuse me, commanders and generals) released on black communities with […]
Posted inGeneral
The racial divisions of class keep racism alive
By Zukiswa Mqolombo I read a thought provoking piece by fellow Scholar, Suntosh Pillay. His was a response to Andile Mngxitama’s little red book Blacks can’t be Racist. His proposition contested Andile’s one, and sought to affirm that black people in postmodern South Africa can be, and often are indeed, racist. This prompted my short […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The future of SA’s opposition politics
By Andy Carolin Contrary to popular perception, opposition parties in South Africa actually intend on making themselves relevant. It was with cautious trepidation that I heard about the possibility of an unspecified cooperation between the DA, ID, UDM and Cope. What will loom ominously above any collaboration between them is the fact that each of […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
SpeakZA: Bloggers for a free press (and ethical leadership)
This post is being circulated on a number of websites and blogs, and is re-posted here in support of a free press in South Africa. The Community of Mandela Rhodes Scholars (CMRS) rejects the actions of Floyd Shivambu based on the CMRS’s commitment to the principle of ethical leadership. Last week, shocking revelations concerning the […]
Posted inLifestyle
One simple reason why blacks can’t be racist
By Suntosh Pillay A short little booklet caught my attention recently. On its red cover, the bold title “Blacks can’t be racist” appeared. Curious by such an absurd claim, I parted with R20. Indeed, it was a 23-page explication on why black people cannot be racist. CANNOT. This argument, written in July 2009, was put […]
Posted inGeneral
Will the real ANC Women’s League please stand up?
By Zukiswa Mqolomba As we celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8, I had to contend with the frightening reality that the ANC Women’s League is indeed dead. I focus on the women’s league because of its strategic location at the centre of political power in South Africa and its historical mission and legacy as […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Nationalising the mines a just cause but…
By Zukiswa Mqolomba Firstly, the ANC Youth league must be applauded for raising debate on key and critical questions about the need to unlock natural productive forces in pursuit of national development. The league has tried to put both a strong historical account and case for nationalisation on the one hand, and an ideological basis […]