Posted inGeneralNews/Politics

Nelson, nostalgia and the nation

By Nedine Moonsamy In South Africa, we’ve never had an easy time with nostalgia. For some citizens being nostalgic about the past is often tied to the guilt of a privileged, white childhood. For others it holds the concern about whether nostalgia glamorises the indignity of poverty under apartheid. In both cases we censor our […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Booing deepens democracy

Booing is now part of our democracy, whether you like it or not. It is so mainstream; it cannot be taboo. It happened at the ANC’s Polokwane conference and it happened at Mangaung. It will happen at the next conference. Should it have happened at former president Nelson Mandela’s memorial is the question? Booing shows […]

Posted inNews/Politics

You can represent Mandela in his absence

By Amukelani Mayimele This is one of those days where society is watching everything we say about Nelson Mandela. We are almost challenged to sound politically correct in our writing and in our sharing of memories of Madiba. Many have succumbed to the pressure and society’s dictatorship on how we should react and think about […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Israel joins the world in mourning Madiba

While the press focused on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision not to attend the memorial service to honour Mandela at FNB Stadium, it failed to give due credit to the high-level Israeli delegation that did attend. It is especially notable and poignant that this delegation comprised human-rights protagonists and activists. Leading the delegation of five […]