By Miranda Mkhumbuzi I strongly believe we were all created equal and that we’re all the same. Race is a social construct with little biological significance. But most of my friends are the same race as me. I think this is because I live in a predominantly black area. Soweto to be exact. As far […]
News/Politics
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Dear Brendon Henry Shields,
I am writing to let you know that your whiteness is not my whiteness. I am doing this because contained within your “frank” confessional piece is the absolute assumption that this discourse represents all white views. Your tone is jocular, earnest and guileless — in fact I can almost visualise you patting yourself on the […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
South Africa 2013
South Africa’s potential growth has slowed over the last few years. Considerable efforts will be needed to meet the Government’s goal of raising per capita income and to create 11 million new jobs by 2030. Moreover, inequality continues to be unacceptably high, suggesting that making growth more inclusive remains an important policy challenge. Our government […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The struggle has long lost its purpose
It would seem that as we approach the 20th anniversary of freedom and democracy, the exact purpose and meaning of the liberation struggle for democracy has become one of the most misunderstood or distorted activities of the last 100 years. Much of the analysis of its achievements tends to focus on non-revolutionary activities like ANC […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Through the eye of an ANC slate
On the issue of slate politics in the ruling party, perhaps the time has come for the party to consider a policy that limits the reach of this mechanism somehow. This is a matter for ANC members to contend with. As for the ordinary folk, slate politics within the “top six” of the ruling party […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why (I think) I don’t have more black friends
A comment by Sunday Times columnist and author Ndumiso Ngcobo on Twitter got me thinking recently. Ndumiso tweeted that “in a country with an 80% black population it must take some effort to not have any close black friends” – or something along those lines. Ndumiso is of course spot on. While I lived in […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Uganda and the science on homosexuality
The Speaker of Uganda’s parliament insists the Anti-Homosexuality Bill from 2009 be passed before 2013 arrives. With the apparent goal of protecting society from sexual deviance, the ill-informed targeting of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex (LGBTI) people illustrates the old saying that politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma grabs for a see-through fig leaf
The Protection of State Information Bill, dubbed the Secrecy Bill, is misnamed on both counts. Contrary to the labels, it will neither assure the safety of critical state information as its proponents claim, nor muzzle the media as its opponents fear. Let’s start with the fact that during the more than two years that the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Addressing the housing shortage in South Africa
Access for the poor to urban land and housing is one of the main challenges facing policy makers in South Africa. Estimates suggest that 26% of households in the six metropolitan areas in our country live in in-formal dwellings, often “illegally” and with limited access to services. Movement from the informal to the formal sector […]
Posted inNews/Politics
We are the leaders we’re waiting for
It’s poor form for a so-called writer not to be able to express this without beckoning the aftertaste of half-digested Gouda but so be it: we are the leaders we’re waiting for. This is true and has been said many times, often with a Coelho-esque earnestness that’s left those with the misfortune of hearing it […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Insurgents closing in on Zuma, he’ll be gone by 2014
The opposition’s motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma coincided with the Shakespearean fall of CIA director David Petraeus. Both Zuma and Petraeus know about modern insurgencies. Petraeus wrote the US Army counterinsurgency strategy handbook when America was losing her wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Zuma, with less success, is trying to fight off […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
The financial crisis and emerging economies
The role of globalisation after the 2008–2009 financial crises has fundamentally altered the economic landscape around the world. Excessive dependence on exports to the United States and the European Union has long been identified as a problem for developing countries. Product and market diversification should be part of any trade or development strategy. The fall […]