The Sunday Tribune carried four articles on April 12, 2015 analysing the Rhodes Must Fall debate in the context of transformation in general. Thank goodness for Shose Kessi’s brilliant analysis that saved those pages from being completely out of touch with activist sentiment on the ground. I want to unpack the complexities that each writer […]
Equality
Posted inEquality, General, Lifestyle
Please, mind your language
By Yolanda Mitchell Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms. This is a core value on which the Constitution is founded. Who doesn’t want to live in a country founded on such a noble base? It sounds like the Promised Land after all — especially to as many […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Equality, Gender violence, Health, News/Politics, Tech
‘It’s time to talk about what’s next’
By Monica Davies If you’ve followed the fight against climate change, in the last year especially, you’ll have noticed voices starting to be raised about things outside climate change — “without racial [or gender or food or economic] justice, there is no climate justice” is the most common one, and it’s entirely true. The problems […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle
The ‘fatherless’ on Father’s Day: Voices from the Cape Flats
By Rebecca Helman In the lead up to Father’s Day on June 21, I’ve been thinking about how important it is for us to redefine who fathers are. In a context where scientific procedures such as sperm donation, surrogacy, artificial insemination and male pregnancy are possible, the boundaries that define who fathers (and mothers) are […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Why is civil society power still located in the global north?
By Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah and Mandeep Tiwana Almost everywhere we look — from economics to demography to air travel to innovation — the shift to the so-called “emerging” markets is palpable. But when it comes to the civil society landscape, the transformation is much less visible. While some high-profile human rights organisations are decentralising (eg Amnesty […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Privileged schools could help township schools
By Lehlohonolo Mofokeng Although our township schools prove year in year out that they are capable of producing world movers and sharers, much of their potential is untapped because of factors that only JK Rowling could describe in depth. But what do privileged schools do to level the educational playing field that is often characterised […]
Posted inEquality, General
Rethinking the new visa requirements, an open letter
Dear John, This morning you said, “Tourists are the most important people” because they bring jobs and money to South Africa before calling the new requirements for visas “daft”. You then went on to say that you just don’t understand why we would be tightening our controls and India doing everything they can to loosen […]
Posted inEquality, General
Franschhoek Literary Festival: Breaking the silence
I used to think it was okay that the Franschhoek Literary Festival was lily-white because the money it raised was used to fund libraries in disadvantaged communities. “Who cares where the money comes from as long as it goes to a good cause,” was my reasoning. I equated the literary festival with those charity gala […]
Posted inEquality, General
Universities need vibrant student affairs officers to drive transformation
Did South African higher education have a hand in our resurgent student voice? Absolutely, student activists would argue, but for its lack of transformation serving as an obstacle rather than an ally in the project of change. Campus debates on change relate not only to transformation but also to how prominent and capable student voices […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Let’s talk about ‘black tax’
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost … he simply wishes to make it possible for a man to […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Does Maimane give young black men new hope?
By Prof Kopano Ratele Forget about the politics, although that is reason we have come to know of him. Forget about the politics of race too, even though our society is the paradigm for the world on how race can be brutally politicised. And forget, for now, the “white sexual object”, psychoanalytically speaking. Listening to […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, General, Health, Lifestyle
Fantasies of binaries: Why are we so uncomfortable with difference?
By Pierre Brouard By Sunday May 17 I would have participated in a panel discussion on LGBTI migrants and asylum seekers at an Idahot event organised by the Alliance Francaise in Sunnyside, Pretoria. Idahot is the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, and is intended to celebrate sexual and gender diversity. This celebratory spin […]