We, as a country, have a serious problem with national morale. Everywhere you look you can sense ”something is wrong”. No doubt, over the last 23 years since the release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990, we have produced bright and charismatic leaders. Many have risen to international stature and are significant global players. In […]
Sandile Memela
Sandile Memela is a journalist, writer, cultural critic, columnist and civil servant. He lives in Midrand.
Posted inLifestyle
We have no cultural icons
Am I the only guy who is fed up with the crisis of creative leadership and lack of innovation in the artistic sector? Where the hell is our outrage at the lack of significant national talent that begins to help us redefine the soul of this nation? We should be throwing stones at the glass […]
Posted inLifestyle
African artists perpetuate stereotypes
The common objection to the work of many African artists is simple: they oversimplify reality and dehumanise the African experience to please a so-called global audience. As a result, their content is predictable and monotonous. In fact, it is not just an insult but, to a large extent, also a lie. What I mean is […]
Posted inGeneral
Dear SuperSport, Afcon doesn’t stand for xenophobia
The most depressing feature of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) has been the mean-spirited attack of so-called ”white, foreign coaches” by leading soccer figures, commentators, players and fans. This reveals an outdated ethnic, tribal essentialism or nationalist view and the inability of some leading soccer figures to articulate and promote non-racism and international brotherhood […]
Posted inNews/Politics
They say government-sponsored artists are traitors
I believe celebrated struggle poet and ANC veteran Mongane Wally Serote will be in a lot of trouble for saying “the white Western voice dominates discourse in this country while the African voice is muted”. He was a panellist on a Big Debate discussion about artists and whether they have sold out or have we […]
Posted inGeneral
Centre for Blackness
Exactly 100 years after Africans were dispossessed of their land and stripped of their identity and heritage, the ANC government has subsidised the opening of the new headquarters for blackness. This comes in the form of a legacy project worth more than R120 million to promote, protect and preserve the legacy of Black Consciousness visionary leader […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Give the maid a break!
Aaaahh!!! The festive season is here. Everyone is on holiday except my sister and aunt who are helpers and domestics in privileged homes. I can imagine everyone in a good mood. They are exchanging bear hugs and expensive gifts. They enjoy long lunches that stretch into summer nights. Let them enjoy the luxury, splendour and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Redi’s story of healing sugar-coats black suffering
Redi Tlhabi’s Endings and Beginnings opens with a murder scene. A bullet-riddled young, black male body is lying dead at a street corner and the whole community has come out to celebrate. He was a gangster, murderer, rapist and robber. It is payback time for Soweto’s haunted history of jack-rollers — the girl kidnapping phenomenon […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Black males are ‘here to protect & preserve white domination’
I’ve never understood why black men have come forward to claim their concern about the state of the country and desire to save it. Black men who not only hold top dog positions in white-owned companies but have been given shares in the name of BEE often make such claims. Now, there is a group […]
Posted inGeneral
Motlanthe not power hungry
In very strange ways Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has been chastised for his reluctance to accept the poisoned chalice of the ANC leadership. In fact he has been unjustifiably condemned as indecisive and, in not so many words, called a coward for not stating whether he will run against President Jacob Zuma for the number […]
Posted inGeneral
Steve Biko joins the ANC
The ANC government deserves national applause for doing what it should have done a long time ago: honouring the legendary Black Consciousness visionary and icon, Steve Bantu Biko. Since 1994 the ANC has been accused of being myopic and self-serving in honouring men and women who have played a pivotal role in the struggle. In […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Nothing unusual about SABC…er, censorship
Since the ANC took political power and governance from white minority rule 18 years ago, the SABC has been a highly contested terrain. What I have noticed is that the wise guys in the so-called private-owned media and their networks have the same predictable attitude to attack its integrity at every opportunity, even for the […]