Look, I’ll be the first to admit that South Africa has many problems. Our economy buckled due to the protracted platinum strike last year, violence and rape remains disturbingly high, poverty and inequality is on the rise and our politics are, well, underwhelming to say the least. One of the consequences is that we have […]
News/Politics
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Verwoerdgate: A different take on Alistair’s faux pas
Alistair Sparks undoubtedly put his foot in it by referring, in the context of praising Helen Zille, to Hendrik Verwoerd as a “smart” politician. Whether he likes it or not, lumping the two together, as well as including him in a list of otherwise progressively inclined white parliamentarians from the apartheid era, to some degree […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Black consciousness and Nazism, really?
After two days following the postings generated by Thorne Godhino’s article, “With friends like these, does black consciousness need enemies?”, I feel I must now confess to an unfulfilled anticipation on my part that someone (why not me I am not sure) would make a particular intervention in this important conversation. Before I get to […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Ethics of poetic ethnicities
By David wa Maahlamela How I wish I could, like many, pretend that the ethics of poetry are engraved on a rock somewhere at the centre of the global village — an assumption that downplays the fact that one’s domicile, environment and experience directly informs his literary outlook. The poetry landscape in South Africa is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The miserable death of a courageous man
I’ve never spoken with or had any dealings with Robin Stransham-Ford. But I now know enough to conclude that he was a man of great courage. Stransham-Ford died last week. His prostate cancer had metastasised to his spine, kidneys and lymph nodes. Stransham-Ford had applied to the North Gauteng High Court asking that if his […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
South Africa’s Weimar moment?
What motivates a young black student leader — and we’re not talking here of a self-hating Uncle Tom-like figure but of one well to the left of Malcolm X — to fulsomely declare his admiration for Adolf Hitler? It is surely common knowledge that extreme anti-black racism was an inextricable part of the Nazi ideology. […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
With friends like these, does black consciousness need enemies?
Mcebo Dlamini is a complex man. He’s the former SRC president at Wits. He spent his days claiming to be a Sisulu grandchild, spinning tall tales of political grandeur and insight into a liberation family that he actually had no ties to. The story may have changed many times, details being replaced with more believable […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How to eradicate extremism
By Dan Kuwali Extremism and radicalisation have fuelled violence and terrorism, which are some of the burning problems that affect communities around the world today. Countering these scourges is in the interest of all states, considering the borderless effects of such criminal acts. An extremist is a person who advocates or resorts to measures beyond […]
Posted inEquality, General, Media, News/Politics
Maimane and the Constitution
In the most direct test of Mmusi Maimane’s understanding of constitutionalism and liberty, the DA’s heir-presumptive has been found wanting. Maimane is widely reported to have stated that he would allow issues like the death penalty and gay rights to be determined by the vote. Understandably, this has caused much upset, among Maimane’s supporters particularly. […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
‘Africa not ready for gay rights’
“Homosexuals are a virus.” Bar this being poor work etiquette this inflammatory language used by an African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHR) member speaks to how we sometimes engage with certain rights at international level — namely we do not. On April 25 this year the Coalition of African Lesbians was granted observer […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Growing up with a political activist
By Mzwandile Masuku The first time I saw an assault rifle was on television in an American movie as a small child. I would then see one in real life shortly after at home, in the living room. These were days when the Royal Swaziland Police Force and the army would raid our home. During […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Time to say bye-bye Phiyega?
It’s going on almost three years since the South African Police Service (SAPS) shot dead 34 striking miners and wounded 78 others at Marikana. And it’s now a full month since President Jacob Zuma was handed the findings of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into those deaths. Given that the inquiry dragged on for more […]