By Thabo Seroke A couple of months ago, Uganda asked a question that could usher in the systematic hate aimed at a group of people. The question was simple: Who is going to inspire the senseless murder of gender-variant people in Africa? This was not a view that needed to be vocalised by Ugandans, but […]
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Posted inNews/Politics
Black diamonds could vote EFF
By Ntombenhle Khathwane There has been much speculation as to where the black middle-class vote will go. What is evident is that there is no party that totally encapsulates the aspirations of these people. Under the current political and economic landscape, the black diamonds could vote EFF as a protest vote against the ANC or […]
Posted inGeneral
Don’t like the ANC, vote for someone else. But who?
By Sydney Ainsworth Majoko The advent of democracy in South Africa should have brought with it a level of freedom not experienced before. One of the most difficult things one can face in a liberal democracy is having the right to vote but also a feeling of “damned if I vote this way and damned […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mandela the communist?
By Dr John Lamola Stephen Ellis’s approach in the brouhaha that has followed the SACP’s December 10 2013 statement that Nelson Mandela was a member of its central committee when he was captured in August 1962 exposes the enormity of the implications of this claim of the SACP. It places the matter within the context […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A black matric certificate is still worth nothing in SA
By Siphiwe Sithole I must congratulate the class of 2013 for achieving what is said to be the highest pass rate of 78.2% since 1994 in South Africa. It is always exciting to watch newly matriculated youths get into the real world, some get jobs, others further their studies while others journey to find themselves […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Signs of the times: The spectacle of mourning Mandela
By Matthew Rumbold “In an economic, elliptic, hence, dogmatic way, I would say that there is no politics without an organisation of the time and space of mourning, without a topolitology of the sepulcher, without an anamnesic and thematic relation to the spirit as ghost, without an open hospitality to the guest as ghost.” Jacques […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Lessons in speechwriting: Obama on Madiba
By Rob Turrell I listened to Barack Obama’s speech about Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium last Tuesday week in awe. I had read his tribute on Mandela’s death and I wondered if he would repeat it or give a new speech. He gave a new speech. I was amazed. I’ll tell you why. Rhetorically speaking […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The danger of making Mandela apolitical
By Nhlanhla Mtaka It is true, nature has the capacity to force us humans to act. This was evident the day former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela died. On that day the message from Mother Nature seems to be clear: stop individualising the multiple and avoid the trap of making Mandela apolitical. Mandela died on December […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Nelson, nostalgia and the nation
By Nedine Moonsamy In South Africa, we’ve never had an easy time with nostalgia. For some citizens being nostalgic about the past is often tied to the guilt of a privileged, white childhood. For others it holds the concern about whether nostalgia glamorises the indignity of poverty under apartheid. In both cases we censor our […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Tata will forgive us but we must not forgive ourselves
By Binwe Adebayo While I generally try to avoid public screenings of hopped-up political events, the Mandela memorial held at FNB Stadium presented an exception to my rule. It was an opportunity for the world to pay homage to a great leader, whose ability to embody the “fruits of the spirit” was unparalleled. Wanting so […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
US journalists are self-censoring their work
By Brendon Bosworth This year, in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaking of classified documents about digital spying, we’ve come to learn that big brother is definitely watching. As revelations about the National Security Agency and the US’s massive digital spying regime continue to surface it’s become increasingly clear that the majority of digital communications […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Why I wouldn’t want to live in suburbia
By Ang Lloyd I was born in Troyeville, Johannesburg, back when it was still considered “nice”. For the first two years of my life we lived opposite Gandhi’s old house. My mother has told me about a neighbour, Adolf, who, after the Jews moved out and the Portuguese moved in, he ominously whispered to my […]