News/Politics

“You see”, said the Congolese security guard to me, “in my country the government would order in the army, they would shoot these people dead”. He paused and then earnestly added, “…but this (South Africa) is a democratic country”. What I had thought was an argument for wide-ranging military intervention to deal with the wave […]

This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Xenophobia ‘third force’ claims: Is the govt seeking a scapegoat?

There is a Cassandra-like experience I have regarding the call on immigrants to integrate in British society. In fact, it is probably more correct in saying European society, for the dimensions of this call stretch far and wide across Europe. It is Cassandra-like, for the more my reservations are true, the less they are believed. […]

There’s a new twist to the geo-political battle in Iraq, unforseen by even the most farsighted of Amireca’s free marketeers. When Ahmadinejad paid a state visit on the 2nd and 3rd of March to US occupied Iraq, condemned American presence and outlined a programme to foster economic ties between Tehran and Bagdad, he caught both […]

I have just moved back to Johannesburg after spending about seven months in Cape Town. Even though I am very glad to be back in Johannesburg ,I am still stressed about the change, and to a small extent I have been sulking a little bit — finding a place to stay, new job, new friends, […]

“Kill the Shangaan! Kill the Shangaan!” the mobs in Ramaphosa informal settlement near Reiger Park chanted as they marched through the streets in search of more victims. Reading it sent a disconcerting prickling sensation down my spine. I searched through the first chapter of my first book on South African insults and found this passage: […]

Why is it that at the first sign of things getting hairy, the calls go out to send in the army? Does anyone actually think about the signal they’re sending to our fellow South Africans by deploying troops against these communities? The current xenophobia problem in South Africa arises, primarily, out of the government’s failure […]

There is a strange, paradoxical blending of disillusionment and hope in the minds of millions of Zimbabweans. Like that mediocrity strutting about in the White House, Mugabe is hell bent in stealing an election he never won. Let there be no doubt, Tsvangirai has no exploitation-free route once he assumes that tragic country’s reigns; masculated […]

The deep rumbles of discontent have, sadly, exploded into an orgy of violence, death and destruction that threatens the center that holds South African society together. It is, of course, a very complex issue but it can be simplified, if you like. One of the fundamental reasons for this explosion of anti–African xenophobia is man’s […]