By Aalia Cassim The popular narrative in the run-up to the elections sprawled across South African televisions, billboards and suburban walls is largely premised on service-delivery successes in post-apartheid South Africa. It is true that the asset and service deficit characteristic under the apartheid government has markedly improved. But almost daily reports of misused municipal […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
I am not voting against the ANC
On Monday I will cast my special vote in the 2014 national and provincial elections. This is the fourth South African election I am eligible to vote in, and this is the first time I will vote for the Democratic Alliance (DA). I was set on voting for the DA long before the Economist endorsed […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Elections 2014: Everything and nothing remains the same
By this time next week, the election dust will have settled. One doesn’t have to be clairvoyant or even wait for the results, to discern the shape of the future. Everything will be the same. Nothing will be the same. The ANC will again form the government and the DA will again form the official […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Guilt and evasion: The killing of Jean McConville
The Disappeared (2013-14) is a devastating and powerful documentary about the deadly and obscure fate of those deemed to be “traitors” by the IRA, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. “If there was a hierarchy of the victims of the Troubles,” says Darragh MacIntyre, the film’s presenter, The Disappeared were at the bottom. The invisible […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
A ‘good story’ to tell – for some
I must admit, the ANC’s election moniker (you know, that it has a “good story” to tell) makes me very angry – probably much more than it should. In the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death, and the feeling that we’ll never again experience such collective unity or progress as a nation, the ANC’s election spin […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Voting is not enough: Beyond the ‘good story/bad story’ debate
It is easy to be an extremist. Taking a blind, one-sided, all-or-nothing viewpoint on an issue allows you to skip the nuance, texture, and blurry greyness of debates. South Africa’s “good story/bad story” debate has politicians locking horns as the extremities in political speeches now surface. Poet Maya Angelou once mused that, “all great achievements […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A personal reflection on the election
By Kelebone Lekunya Twenty years ago South Africa was ushered into the era of freedom and democracy where old guys like Nelson Mandela voted for their very first time in their seventies. Of course that freedom didn’t come on a silver platter: it was paid with the ultimate price of the blood of martyrs like […]
Posted inNews/Politics
They can’t vote. We can. They need our help.
Are you voting next Wednesday? (I hope so.) Here’s something to think about. You’re not just voting for yourself — you’re voting on behalf of a whole lot of South Africans who can’t. Eighteen million of them, in fact — 37% of South Africans are under the age of 18, and they are the ones […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Let the youth take over the ANC
The duty of the young is to improve upon the past which is, largely, a world created or messed up by their parents. What we are witnessing now is that moment when the great grandchildren of Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko and others must make a choice in terms of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
EFF/DA/ANC/Agang: Same mess, different party
“Power belongs to the people until they vote, then they are represented.” This is the time of pledges and hope. A time when misogynists are promising to uphold women’s rights, homophobes championing LGBTI rights, racists speaking about the struggle and xenophobes talking Pan-Africanism. A time when you realise who really shares your views and who […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Buti Manamela’s moment of truth: Luthuli House rules
Buti Manamela, ANC MP and leader of the Young Communist League, caused a stir in Parliament this week when he stated bluntly that he acts on orders from Luthuli House, the ANC’s headquarters. He was speaking at the meeting where the ANC used its parliamentary majority to shut down the ad hoc committee tasked with […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How DA rhetoric propels black pathology stereotypes
“There is a kind of arrogance and racism that assumes if you are black, then you are a member of the ANC” uttered Mamphela Ramphele (paraphrased) at the Dispatch Dialogues hosted by the Daily Dispatch in conjunction with the University of Fort Hare in East London two weeks ago. These remarks were made at an […]