By Donné Cameron This is turning out to be a big week of big deals; first Greece, now Iran and very soon Addis. I am writing from within a bubble, albeit a loud bubble, of bureaucracy in the middle of downtown Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the UN has chosen to host people to talk about […]
News/Politics
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Redressing Rhodes’ legacy
When Rhodes fell in South Africa it reverberated globally. His statue, gazing over a changed country, is a metaphor for modern-day South Africa. Even though the country’s transition was relatively bloodless, its change mostly peaceful, and its black majority theoretically free; the Rainbow Nation’s democratic achievements are fiercely contested. The inherited systemic inequality, made worse […]
Posted inBusiness, General, News/Politics
Bravo Greece!
The outcome of the Greek referendum on whether to accept the stringent conditions for another “bailout”, laid down by its creditors, should be applauded as an unambiguous manifestation of the democratic public spirit that refuses to continue allowing the neoliberal economic regime to put money before people. It also testifies to historical amnesia on the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
5 simple things that could get you arrested in Angola
By Muluka Miti-Drummond When people think of Angola many think of the 27-year-long civil war that ended in 2002. Some might even think of oil and diamonds. And if you know anything about African presidents, you’ll probably think of José Eduardo dos Santos, the current president of Angola and Africa’s second longest serving president. What […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, News/Politics
So what is income inequality? How is it measured?
Income inequality in Africa is wide and persistent, particularly in South Africa. Will the country’s proposed national minimum wage lessen it? South Africa suffers from a large income gap between rich and poor. A 2013 survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development suggested that “no progress towards income equality has been made since […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Dear Greece
It is not the best of times. I’m not sure what the problem is over there, but it seems to be affecting everyone. Angela Merkel is angry, your own prime minister looks a little bewildered and the people of Greece, you, are hurting most of all. As far as I can tell your banks let […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Farlam Commission is being unfairly targeted
The final report of Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the events at Marikana, released last week, has been widely lambasted in the press. Equally scathing about commission’s “failure to get justice” for the 34 miners killed by the SA Police Service, has been the social media commentariat. The amount of criticism directed at Judge Ian […]
Posted inHealth, News/Politics
Civil society plays key role in promoting health rights in southern Africa
By Annabel Raw The Southern Africa Litigation Centre’s health rights programme was established in 2007 to advance human rights and the rule of law in southern Africa in relation to the HIV pandemic. Our work under this programme demonstrates the importance of human rights and the rule of law in issues of HIV and health […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics, Sport
Losing in straight sets to the truth about Mandela
Just having tea this morning in Illinois, US, checking out the early rounds at Wimbledon on ESPN, one of the American all-day sports TV channels. Turns out it is 40 years since a black man won Wimbledon for the first and so far the only time — Arthur Ashe in 1975. Yay Arthur. Three of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
ANC is transmogrifying into Zanu-PF
The Zanufication of the African National Congress proceeds apace. With every week that passes our governing party more closely resembles its Zanu-PF counterpart in Zimbabwe. In an apparently co-ordinated campaign, opponents are vilified and delegitimised. It seems that at best they are unwitting dupes of imperialist Western interests, lacking appropriate revolutionary consciousness as decreed by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Impunity vs Immunity: Africa and the ICC
By Netsanet Belay As the International Criminal Court (ICC) opens its Assembly of States Parties — the periodic gathering of all the countries who have ratified the court’s statute — in The Hague, it does so with a bloody nose. The court was yet again met with contempt this month by South Africa’s failure to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How dare you compare the youth of 2015 to those of 1976?
The youth of 1976 stand lauded for their bravery in standing up to the government of the time. They held what was meant to be a peaceful march in protest against being instructed, as black learners, in Afrikaans. Afrikaans was the language of the leadership at the time. This peaceful march turned gruesome and now […]