The “coloured question” revived itself, again. This time, not by politicians hoping to gain sympathy votes from the coloured majority in the Western and Northern Cape provinces. Jamie Petersen, a 22-year-old Cape Town resident, writing about her experiences of “being coloured in a black and white South Africa” sparked this latest wave of the debate. […]
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Posted inEquality, General
A commemoration of Nelson Mandela
By Zuki Mqolomba ”Bring back Nelson Mandela/Bring him back home to Soweto/I want to see him walking down the streets of South Africa tomorrow/Nelson Mandela” [Hugh Masekela, Bring back Nelson Mandela] ”The year 1963/The People’s President/Was taken away by security men/All dressed in a uniform/The brutality, brutality/Oh no, my black president/Him and his comrades/Were sentenced […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, General
The humanities and the advent of the ‘posthuman’
One of the most promising and exciting developments in recent thought has been the emergence of the “posthuman” as a distinct field within, and simultaneously transcending, the humanities. It comes from within this disciplinary field insofar as thinkers working in humanities disciplines such as philosophy and literary departments have contributed to what can perhaps be […]
Posted inEquality
The problem with “Why I can’t ‘get over’ apartheid”
I had the privilege of teaching both “white” and “black” children during the apartheid era, during the transition, and thereafter. This was from about 1988 to 2004.* Xhosa teenagers in Langa High** (I taught there in 1989 and 1990) were highly politicised, talked about oppression and how to dismantle apartheid. Once the ANC was unbanned […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Under fire SADC media must build alliances with citizens
The recent release of veteran journalist and editor Bheki Makhubu from a Swaziland jail should have been a momentous occasion for media freedom and freedom of expression activists in southern Africa. Instead, it has turned out to be a missed opportunity to inspire confidence, re-energise practitioners and consumers alike, and call the bluff on repressive […]
Posted inGeneral, Health
Public health in SA: Crying out for help, but who is listening?
By Louise Carmody I was one of over a hundred people who gathered last week in the University of the Free State auditorium, as communities shared their experiences with an independent panel of three commissioners. Treatment Action Campaign and Section 27 convened the panel to investigate the real situation of public health care services in […]
Posted inEquality
Can we be inspired by role models across the race barrier?
The idea that one benefits mainly from having a role model within the same race group is not new. I have encountered this viewpoint in the workplace many times and it is a largely accepted position. When I matriculated in 1999, it was very early days into our new democracy, with plenty of optimism about […]
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, 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 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 inEquality, General, Lifestyle, Media
The pointless hypocrisy of pretending to be homeless
The eThekwini Municipality recently offered “an opportunity of a lifetime” for residents to sleep on the streets – for a night. Along with I-Care, a non-profit helping homeless kids, the purpose was to give people a taste of the hardships experienced by being homeless. “Participants will spend one evening with homeless people of the city […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The al-Bashir saga: Questions about the bottom line on SA’s sovereignty
By Jan Hofmeyr One of the more revealing aspects of this week’s fracas involving Omar al-Bashir’s entry and exit from the African Union Summit in Sandton, is the deep insecurity our government has displayed in asserting its own sovereignty. Faced with a choice between adherence to our constitution, abiding to an international convention to which […]