Late on Saturday morning, in true African time, a ramrod Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a flinty speech that was not only a preamble to the African National Congress’s verdict on youth league leader Julius Malema, but a warning sign to the rest of the party: ill-discipline will not be tolerated. By upholding the guilty verdict, the […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
One continent, two African Unions
By Takura Zhangazha The failure of the African Union (AU) to elect a new chairperson for its commission on January 30 points to a seriously divided continental body. Had this been an election based merely on the popularity or campaign skills of the two candidates Jean Ping and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, it would not warrant analysis […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Language and inequalities in education
By Athambile Masola As a language teacher, I have been following the furore about African languages being axed from schools with great interest. I have been reading and trying not to be cynical about every new article announcing that yet another school will no longer offer isiZulu or isiXhosa in the foundation phase. There have […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Weathering the South African Weather Service Amendment Bill storm
By Steve Pike The people have spoken, and the government has listened. But the question remains: has the South African Weather Service (Saws) listened? Positive outcomes in Parliament are pending after the public hearing last week on the draft South African Weather Service Amendment Bill, driven by assurances from ANC MP Johnny de Lange that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Masso’pundas endorse Democratic Alliance Student Organisation poster
Once upon a time before apartheid, around 200-million years ago during what is known as the Early Jurassic epoch, there lived a number of dinosaurs known as Massospondylus. How do we know this? Simple, there is a group of scientists known as palaeontologists, who make wine connoisseurs look like humble citizens, and they said so, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zille and Zuma: Different styles, same problems
Political parties seethe with factional intrigue and jockey for position. As a result, party leadership is like a tightrope walk. The challenge is to retain cohesion by keeping mavericks leashed, while not stifling contrarian views that are not only inevitable, but can actually revitalise the party. With this against the tricky reality that unlike chief […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Crush Occupy Rondebosch Common
It’s been a glorious summer in Cape Town. The heatwave had one and all at swimming pools and beaches all over the Cape. Long Street was packed with clubbers and tourists from all over the world. Drinks flowed freely: Hennessy, Bacardi, Hunters, Carling, you name it. Sadly, it was spoiled by talk of our beloved […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Does THAT poster get under your skin?
Let me state right upfront that I really do have better things to do than write about THAT poster. Four strategies (one of them for a campaign to celebrate our Constitution, which I’m excited about because it’s the closest yet I’ll get to putting the theory I explored in my thesis into practice). Various commissioned […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Where have all our intellectuals gone?
The strange nature of South African democracy in its static economic condition makes the position and function of so-called intellectuals and thought leaders within it very complex and almost dysfunctional. Those who consider themselves intellectuals are not, at face value, critically engaging with the patriarchal, racist and capitalist superpower structure which makes it almost impossible […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dreams From Mangaung
For every occasion, there is an instance so poignant only the willfully blind and the intentionally deaf can miss it. Such moments tend to happen outside and in spite of the rehearsed and the orchestrated. They can be dramatic or surreal. In the FIFA World Cup of 2006, such a definitive moment occurred in the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
ANC centenary: Savour the moment
Despite the jealous jeers from detractors at the sidelines, the African National Congress is deservedly proud of the centenary it is celebrating. It marks a remarkable achievement – the ANC’s existence as Africa’s oldest surviving political movement, as well as one of the longest in existence worldwide. From its nascence as a tiny struggle vanguard, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Closing down democratic space is what is really counter-revolutionary
Private and unpublished correspondence by the South African poet Roy Campbell recently came into my possession. In a letter to Francis C. Slater, written in Rome sometime between September 1938 and February 1939, Campbell writes that “journalists are the greatest Social Poison the world has yet seen”. He goes on: “It is a treat to […]