British National Party leader Nick Griffin reminds us it is not only in South Africa where public personalities revert to the most basic prejudices to advance their cause or please their followers. Labelling former president Nelson Mandela a “murderous terrorist” may be an extreme example, but those who like public recognition often revert to such […]
Nelson Mandela
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Where is the black conservative in South Africa?
By Melo Magolego The deafening umbrage surrounding the DA’s use of Mandela in DA posters makes me curious. What has made people so flustered about the appropriation of the Mandela brand by the DA? I find reasons focusing on the veracity and accuracy of the claims about the track record of Helen Suzman wholly uninteresting. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Jacob who? Mandela takes refuge in the fog of age
For me, the iconic photograph of George W Bush was of the American president reading to a bunch of kindergarten kids. It was conceived as standard pre-election pap, a photo opportunity to show the caring side of the nation’s most powerful man. But as it happened the date was September 11, 2001 and the picture […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Ubuntu Declaration and Mthembu* Act of 30/4/2013
It has been formally announced that the direct descendants of its invention have formally redefined Ubuntu, the concept formally defined, as: “We only exist because of each other” and similar. The new definition has been proclaimed as follows: expedience ownership heartlessness industrious stupidity abuse of the elderly, infirm or powerless homelessness (also homes that are […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Keep your elections to yourself
Who cares about the rights of Mr Mandela and Mrs Suzman? It’s all about the rights of politicians to brand themselves to death. Let me say this loud and clear. I am sorry in advance for having so little respect for politicians everywhere. Mostly, I am sorry because we are landed with them, these public-relations […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
A short story about a small room
“I’ll get stuck in a small room with you Any day now, any day now” Karen Zoid Recently, I took part in a video shoot on Robben Island. The day’s work entailed that I had to spend several hours in Madiba’s old jail cell, the little space where he had spent seventeen of his twenty […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Cry (wolf racism) the beloved country
There is probably nothing as tiresome, irritating and reactionary in contemporary South African discourse as the knee-jerk accusation of racism in response to anything critical of the ANC government, of any black person or of any institution that happens to be managed by black people (in the broadest, Biko-esque sense of “black”). Ironically, this knee-jerk, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I know whiteness through and through
Racism is alive and living in the confines of the whiteness construct. This year alone has thrown up many local and global racist incidents that prove that we are a long way off from a post-racist society. It seems to me that whiteness is losing the plot and in serious need of deconstruction — hence […]
Posted inMedia
The Alf I knew
It was on the first day, the opening of the 2010 Fifa World Cup when I heard a voice behind me say “sorry, I need your help”. I turned around and saw a short, old man with cameras and lenses strapped to his body. They looked heavy on him. He was wearing a balaclava, rolled […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Makana, Mandela, Marikana — endings and beginnings
Marikana is a name like Soweto, June 16. Like Sharpeville. It is a turning point. History will record it. Future generations will shudder. There are few South Africans whose hearts are not broken by those eight letters. Here where I live in the United States, Americans have bought into the South African Dream, the Rainbow […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mandela has nothing to apologise for
By Gugu Ndima It’s quite intriguing that the stature of former president Nelson Mandela has been questioned. His integrity and commitment to his people is being cross-examined. Insinuations have been propagated that the former president sold out for self-centred motives and instantaneous fulfilment. As a member of the ANC, and disciplined member of the ANCYL, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mandela’s legacy a threat
By Lukhona Mnguni Those of us who are born in July are growingly becoming either miserable or jealous over Madiba. There is hardly a fuss about anyone’s birthday but that of Nelson Mandela’s in July. However, this is not really the main point of protest over this Mandelafication of the month of July. It is […]