It’s almost 20 years on but many of the “old” South Africa’s anti-democratic habits remain. The ANC, for one, has developed an authoritarian streak similar to that of the National Party and then there are some in the legal fraternity, sworn to defend the new Constitution’s ethos of transparency and accountability, who have retained the […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
Youth month not just about June 16
June is youth month and the theme has something to do with youth getting involved in economic opportunities. Quite appropriate I must say. Now and then we have a period of time when we dedicate our national attention to one important cause, a demographic group, heritage, or an issue of national or socio-cultural interest. We […]
Posted inEnvironment, News/Politics
Turkey: The last green space
In one of its earliest reports on the turmoil that is ripping through Turkish cities, CNN highlighted an apparent paradox: How the anti-government protests that are now being compared to the Arab Spring were sparked by a “trivial” matter: The destruction of Gezi Park in the centre of Istanbul. Gezi Park is the last remaining […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Inequality in the land of plenty
I see her every Saturday or any other day that I visit home in the townships. I know more than just her name as they have been our neighbours for more than 40 years that we have stayed in the townships. Honey, as she is popular known, has told me countless times that I am […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Beware the boy who cries ‘Zulufication’
In Aesop’s fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, a shepherd boy alone on a hillside tending to sheep called on people in a nearby village to help him chase away a wolf that was attacking his flock. There was no wolf of course. He was just doing what bored shepherd boys are tempted to do […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Is SA ready to lead by example?
The inauguration of Advocate Lawrence Mushwana last week as the new chairperson of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC) came at a time when South Africa’s human rights record is at its lowest. Mushwana, who is the chair of South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Something rotten in the state of the law
Lawyers love Latin axioms. Not only do these pithy phrases dating to Roman times encapsulate the law’s basic tenets, but also remind we plebs of the lawyer’s learning, which even if we don’t always benefit from as clients, we are likely to have to shell out dearly for. One popular maxim is Quis custodiet ipsos […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Jewish-Christian link in SA elections
Elections due for early 2014, are shaping up to be South Africa’s most hotly contested. A critical array of issues, such as unemployment levels in excess of 40% and still rising, poor delivery of basic services, police brutality, on-going rolling labour unrest, chronic government corruption and a stalling economy are vital to every population group. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Marikana Files
Social Justice Journalist and Filmmaker, Sipho Singiswa, takes us inside Marikana to meet the miners and community members who live in the impoverished settlements around the Lonmin Mining operation. He also interviews Head Researcher of the Bench Marks Foundation David Van Wyk on the issue of socioeconomic transgressions that this community is forced to deal […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Are we trapped in conversation?
With black consciousness thick in the air, old comrades smiling knowingly at each other, and images of the late Strini Moodley projected in front of us, those of us too young to be dynamic rebels against apartheid sensed a whiff of what it might have felt like to be at a secret activist meeting. The […]
Posted inNews/Politics
President Obama, the Apple of politics
President Obama has a lot in common with Apple. Both started off as challengers to mainstream hegemony. Both appealed to individuals who fancied themselves as iconoclasts, rather than corporate overlords. Both inspired idealism and both ensure adherents the kind of tribal affiliation most of us crave in same form. Both, too, have seriously flawed records. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Surreal manipulation of truth by Wits concert disrupters
It doesn’t matter what ball you put in your opponent’s court so long as you spin it. Shane Warne would agree, and so would those behind the break-up of a concert by Israeli-born pianist Yossi Reshev at Wits last March. Ever since that incident, the latter and their apologists have presented a consistently changing set […]