By Dr Owen Wiese I remember very clearly an incident during my community service, when I walked into the trauma unit at a day hospital in Cape Town one morning and found a patient lying on the trolley, bleeding profusely from a knife wound. I picked up the patient’s file and read: stab wound to […]
Reader Blog
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Posted inEnvironment, News/Politics
SA govt must face court for xenophobic violence, migration policy
By Evans Wadongo The South African government will soon be in the country’s high court because petitioners from countries like Nigeria, Malawi and Zambia are displeased by the spate of xenophobic attacks and murders of migrants from their countries. These attacks and deaths have also sparked the #WeAreAfrica hashtag on social media, a 30 000 person […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Ethics of poetic ethnicities
By David wa Maahlamela How I wish I could, like many, pretend that the ethics of poetry are engraved on a rock somewhere at the centre of the global village — an assumption that downplays the fact that one’s domicile, environment and experience directly informs his literary outlook. The poetry landscape in South Africa is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How to eradicate extremism
By Dan Kuwali Extremism and radicalisation have fuelled violence and terrorism, which are some of the burning problems that affect communities around the world today. Countering these scourges is in the interest of all states, considering the borderless effects of such criminal acts. An extremist is a person who advocates or resorts to measures beyond […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The lice in the Zulu king’s blanket
By Alois Rwiyegura If South Africa fails to achieve an objective reading of what we simplistically call xenophobic attacks and take the correct actions, it will have to brace itself for a turbulent and unsafe future. Nobody would deny that the basis of these attacks on foreigners is the economic situation of the country. The […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The world won’t slow down for Africa to catch up
By Dr Noah Manyika Let me start with a confession: I have not always been my wellbeing’s best friend. I have bristled when others have described my lapses in judgment as … lapses in judgment. I have not always been man enough to consider as friends those who point out my shortcomings, and at times […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why the Garissa attack was to be expected
By Stephen Buchanan-Clarke On April 2 2015, Kenya again bore witness to the horrors of another well-planned and executed Al-Shabab-led terrorist attack. Like a recurring Westgate nightmare, five gunmen stormed Garissa University College, separated Christians from Muslims, and executed 150 students, after making many lay face down on their beds. For a brief moment Al-Shabab […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Garissa: Why do they not mourn along with us?
By Laila Rupani One hundred and forty seven/147 young adults recently met their death at the hands of terrorists in Garissa, Kenya. The number, whether alphabetically or numerically written out, holds no value. It is so arbitrary and trivial, yet it is what most media headlines were fixated on. As the hours went by and […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
This article is for whites only
By Simeon Gready I would like to propose a challenge. This challenge is for the white people of South Africa, and it takes the form of a list. This list is a list of truths regarding the status of white in South Africa. I challenge the white person in South Africa to engage with this […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Swaziland: External-led revolution needed
By Ntombenhle Khathwane On Sunday April 12, Swaziland will be marking the 42nd year since democracy ended after a brief five years through the decree passed by King Sobhuza in 1973 that concentrated power in the monarch and flung Swazis a few centuries back in terms of political and social development, basically back into a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
50 shades of brown: Lessons on racism at UCT
By Dr Shikoh Gitau “Aunty don’t you mean beige?” the small voice interrupted. Her 12-year-old sister added: “You know if they were really white, they would be like this,” pointing at a blank sheet of paper. “And if we were black, we will be like that,” she said, pointing to the well-polished black ceramic glass […]
Posted inMedia
Trevor Noah – what his success reveals about good leadership
By Tanya Charles Unless you were on another planet, you will have by now heard that Trevor Noah is going to replace John Stewart as host of The Daily Show later this year. No doubt, this is ground-breaking for many, many reasons, but for me, a bit peculiarly, this announcement has got me thinking about […]