In the four general elections held in post-apartheid South Africa, the African National Congress obtained the lion’s share of the vote, always garnering more than 62%, and an even bigger slice of votes from black South Africans. The Democratic Alliance’s 2014 election campaign has already kicked off, with its characterisation of the ruling party a […]
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Posted inGeneral
To hell with this anti-black education system!
A Guatemalan poet, guerrilla fighter and revolutionary, Otto René Castillo, forces us as Africans to return from our retreat from the habit of thinking when he speaks to us of apolitical intellectuals of our time. Castillo says of these people: “One day the apolitical intellectuals of my country will be interrogated by the simplest of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Freedom without responsibility a recipe for failure
By Erik de Ridder Freedom Day is a useful focal point to consider efforts at making freedom a lived reality for all. Moreover, it is an opportunity to reflect on the need for a different type of engagement in South Africa. On the part of those who enjoy different freedoms, Freedom Day is an opportunity […]
Posted inGeneral
Is the Sadtu strike a hail to freedom?
Khethelo Xulu As we celebrate Freedom Day in South Africa and wish to see more positive things in our country, I, as a young person, am saddened by the state of basic education, particularly in rural and townships schools. As we celebrate, we talk about sacrifices made by different people on different levels, heroines and […]
Posted inGeneral
Resisting the dehumanising architecture of the ‘space of flows’
Against the background of my previous post on “The ‘space of flows and the social elites of today”, it is illuminating to take note of Manuel Castells’s (The Rise of the Network Society, 2010: Chapter 6, Section 6) interpretation of contemporary, “postmodern” architecture as an architecture that has been redefined by the space of flows […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
On systemic lawlessness in South Africa
What we have in South Africa today is systemic lawlessness. The parking meters around the mall I often visit have not worked in more than two months. The last time I visited, everyone seemed fully aware of the malfunction, but nobody seemed to care. Some people were quite gleeful about there being free parking. Others […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Muslims no longer ‘own’ their Islam
*Name withheld It’s 10am on a Tuesday morning, and routinely, I browse through the web for the morning news. I know that I will come across the article soon, because my partner texted me late the night before saying: “Have you heard about Mars1? They’re making a reality show … and after eight years, whoever […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
On sexuality and freedom
“It is not enough to inquire into how women might become more fully represented in language and politics. Feminist critique ought also to understand how the category of ‘women’, the subject of feminism, is produced and restrained by the very structures of power through which emancipation is sought.” Judith Butler: Gender Trouble. At first read, […]
Posted inEquality
Government must get Metrorail back on track
Many of the comments left on my previous post about the disaster that is Metrorail suggested that privatising the service would be a better option. But this ignores the exploitation of customers by the private sector as indicated by the bread price-fixing scandal and the recent exposure of the construction cartels. Privatising is no solution, […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
The changing landscape of financial inclusion
Today, there is broad recognition that access to capital is only one of the inputs required for economic development and poverty alleviation. Furthermore, the marginalised — like anyone — require and use a variety of financial services for a variety of purposes. And some of these services work better than others, for reasons we are […]
Posted inEquality
Black people are poor, not stupid
I am terribly annoyed by academics and political analysts in this country. It has become a Herculean task for me to even read their works and research based on the conditions of black people, particularly in the townships and rural areas. Most of these academic papers and articles, whatever issue they deal with, however different […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
Alcohol in Australia: Some observations
So we’re facing the prospect of something that the advertising industry has been fighting for years: the banning of alcohol advertising. Having just visited one of the great nanny states, Australia, I thought it would be interesting to share some observations of how alcohol issues are handled there. The fact that I was able to […]