Sandile Memela

Nelson Mandela has been at the forefront of the struggle for non-racism and national unity to end all forms of apartheid in South Africa. The world will be celebrating this on his 93rd birthday come July 18. Even though much of his political activity — including leading the military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto We […]

I once read somewhere or overheard someone define a genius: a person who does what no other person has done before or is not afraid to say things that others are afraid to say. In am not interested in the correctness or falsity of this stamen. In South Africa, there is a pervasive culture of […]

When Soweto is cold with complacency, the whole world becomes indifferent. After all, it is the biggest township in Africa. Visitors, tourists and foreigners come from far and wide to witness and experience the scene of the most brutal murder to have happened in our history: cold-blooded shooting of innocent children on June 16 1976. […]

Perhaps it’s time the public put on its thinking cap and ask: what has the media got to lose if chief government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi pulls the plug on the government’s R1 billion advertising spend? It would mean huge losses for the private shareholders of many companies. We must understand that the government is not obliged […]

I don’t know when it hit me but it was during my first year as a young reporter in 1985 when I had just joined City Press newspaper fresh from studying communications at Fort Hare University. That was when I noticed that newspaper journalists, sub-editors, columnists and editors in every publication have, unavoidably, a particular […]

Today’s young leaders are largely, arrogant, self-obsessed and concerned with position and power. I’m talking about, mostly, young men and women who are not only under 35 years of age but hold so-called important positions of influence and power in organisations, be it politics, business, NGOs or even the church. They are not the sort […]

You do not go into politics, especially at local level, to be rich. It is only when you are rich, especially at a spiritual and moral level, that you should go into politics. The problem with South African politics, especially in organisations like the ANC, is that people who run for office see politics as […]

1. They are IGNORANT of history. They don’t know or accept that the ANC is the oldest liberation movement in the world. 2. They don’t know who they are. They are unable to define their true identity. 3. They believe colonialism, apartheid and racism are dead, or never mattered. 4. They espouse colour-blindness to pretend […]

I am not interested in people telling me what is wrong about the Afrikaner National Congress (sic). Rather I am keen to hear what they are going to do to fix it, that is, if it is imperfect. It is either Afrikaners are part of the problem or part of the solution. One thing that […]

There is a strange, black beneficiary of affirmative action (AA) and ongoing political and economic change who refuses to acknowledge the gains and opportunities provided by majority rule, especially ANC policies. It is always curious, for me, to read or listen to a story of a black person who refuses to acknowledge that, directly or […]