In my previous article on the #FeesMustFall protests I made the point that a hierarchy of legitimacy was being entrenched in having the state publicly respond to political claims originating from historically white institutions and not when they originate from historically black universities (HBU). These claims, which the HBUs have for the past couple of […]
Melo Magolego
Mandela Rhodes Scholar. Fulbright scholar. California Institute of Technology. MSc in electrical engineering.
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#NationalShutDown: Lessons from 1989 Tiananmen Square
I watched the evening news bulletin reporting how this current incarnation of the #FeesMustFall movement had spread to Fort Hare. I watched Fort Hare students, like students at other campuses, burn all manner of property. But what was odd in all that burning at Fort Hare, was the students throwing toilet paper all over the […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#FeesMustFall and its inherent elitism
In US politics it is often said that when you are young, if your politics is not progressive then you have no heart. However when you are old, if your politics is not conservative then you have no brain. In SA we have conservative voices that are quick to spell out inflation, budgets, costs and […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
The very ordinary face of racism
Looking at the picture of the two young students from Tuks, one of the things I would like to know is: Does that paint not itch? Sweat and a thick coat of paint, they surely are strange bedfellows. Nevertheless, it seems that even the green Sunlight block of soap will not wash this paint away; […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
A toyi-toyi for Doek Fridays
On Friday, the department of arts and culture introduced a “Wear a Doek Fridays” campaign to mark Women’s Month. Women took to the streets of Twitter brandishing retweets of outrage. With each minute the Twitter numbers started to swell. A sign that those without a 3G internet connection were arriving at their places of work. […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
An amputation for our Frankenstein anthem?
The October 10 1997 Government Gazette announced that the national anthem committee, chaired by Professor Mzilikazi Khumalo, had completed its work. The professor had presided over the successful animation of a creature. A creature comprised of parts taken from the bodies of each of our lived histories. For one group this creature was a repugnant […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Oh my Gad! Chief Justice Mogoeng wants to mix religion and law
For many who spent their childhood in Pretoria, they’ll remember all too well the threats parents wielded to curb errant behaviour. They would temper a lust for misadventure with the threat of the stout school in Hammanskraal. A hint of madness would be tempered with the threat of Weskoppies in Pretoria West. And any bent […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle, News/Politics
A sangoma should lead prayer at president’s inauguration
Every five years the residents of Pretoria are treated to the likes of Robert Mugabe and his rather peculiar scarecrow-like amandla fist-pump. Every five years our eyes are trained on that Herbert Baker monument that is the Union Buildings. Every five years we put on an august show that is a representative manifesto of our […]
Posted inNews/Politics
What’s wrong with Mmusi Maimane?
Meryl Streep in the movie Doubt plays the role of a nun, Sister Aloysius Beauvier. The character is a subversive antagonist that casts doubt on articles of faith yet is ambivalent about what is the truth. The lingering feeling of doubt that Sister Aloysius conjures is perhaps equalled by the doubt I feel about a […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Let Zille wear her doek in peace
Twitter and Facebook have given armchair activists access to audiences previously only reachable from standing on crates at political rallies. The newest cause for outrage has been Helen Zille wearing a doek and posing with drie-voet pots. Her pose is reminiscent of black women cooking at a wedding or funeral. The outrage is much a […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality
Death by sokkie musiek at corporate functions
Yet another award ceremony, yet another corporate weekend away. So, what shall be my mask this time? The history of power in corporate SA still looms large in the boardrooms of present-day South Africa. The black face needs to be masked by fluency in an institutional culture which, it is assumed, is ahistorical. That is, […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Racism perpetuated by reconciliation at UFS
Every time you read of yet another racist incident at the University of the Free State (UFS), you cannot avoid colliding with the despondency people feel as they become resigned to yet another Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the way. Every time you want to get angry, be outraged at racism, you are very quickly […]