Recently the Mail & Guardian held a Google Hangout revisiting the decision by the newspaper to establish a section dedicated to women. This is out of a concern that despite the good intentions of the section, it could have the effect of negatively contributing to the further ghettoization of “women’s issues”. I was invited to […]
News/Politics
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Why are (black) men silent on the war on queer bodies?
By Gcobani Qambela and Thoko Sipungu Toni Morrison says “evil has a blockbuster audience, goodness lurks backstage. Evil has vivid speech, goodness bites its tongue”. It is not difficult to remember these words when looking at the peculiar silence from heterosexual black men when it comes to issues of LGBTI and queer individuals. Writing for […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Keeping shtum*
When I was a young woman just out of school and during a state of emergency, while on a visit to my beautiful Boba, we were talking politics and I told her I was in despair and hoping for the Messiah. She said I could put out my cigarette for starters. Let me say this […]
Posted inNews/Politics
With an ‘oppositionist’ Cosatu, who needs a DA?
ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe is not so happy with the “oppositionist” posture that Cosatu and some unions within the federation take when dealing with the ruling party. The veteran former unionist surely feels that “as comrades with same revolutionary parent (read goal), let us talk gently and say our opprobrium behind closed doors, not […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Why the poor vote for the ANC and will do so for a long time
The question of why the poor who are always complaining about the ANC continue to vote for the organisation has always preoccupied my mind. I could never really comprehend how it is possible for multitudes of people who are being abused by the ruling party would vote it into power. I tried to rationalise it […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
ID blocking: A growing threat to nationality
By Liesl Muller South Africa’s 1994 elections paved the way for all citizens to enjoy the human rights flowing from equal citizenship but rumours of the deficient pre-electoral registration of the previously disadvantaged have been wholly disregarded in the wake of apartheid’s fall. The effects of rushed registration policies have caught up with us and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Charitable giving: Don’t squander your generosity
This is a generous nation but a country with boundless needs. So there is no shortage of worthy causes competing for attention, spare change or unwanted household goods. While some government funding – too little, often too late – goes to not-for-profits (NPOs) that benefit people, those working with animals get nothing. The plight of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Inequality may derail our democratic stability
The most persistent and grotesque characteristic of apartheid South Africa was the creation and maintenance of inequality premised on the superiority of one race over another. For well over three hundred years its policy focus and decisions were directed at reinforcing and sustaining the status quo with a view to ensuring that equal opportunity was […]
Posted inNews/Politics
We need a lasting solution to the Walter Sisulu University debacle
By Olwethu Sipuka The current calamity at Walter Sisulu University (WSU) has taken me back to my times at the university. Some of the memories are permanently embedded in my mind and continue to be my reference points towards humanity. In 2002-2003 I served as the president of the Student Representative Council at Border Technikon […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
We dare not forget Sobukwe’s legacy
A week ago, I decided to go to Kimberley in the Northern Cape to visit the house of the founding president of the PAC, the great Robert Sobukwe. Finding house number 6 in Naledi Street was easy. People of Galeshewe township know Sobukwe’s house. We found the gate opened and walked to the door to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
‘Shoot the Jew’ – hidden mantra of Israel’s enemies
The true face of the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement (BDS) was revealed on the steps leading up to the Great Hall at Wits by a group of protesters who hurled abuse at attendees of a concert by Daniel Zamir, an Israeli jazz quartet last Wednesday. Things turned ugly when some of the protestors chanted […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
An educated population is not a panacea but it’s the only way forward
I have always maintained that the only way for our country to achieve true prosperity, and for individuals and groups to achieve their goals, is through the education of all our people. This means that where there is a budgetary conflict, education takes priority over almost anything else. I would like to start off by […]