By Sarah Silber I was exactly seven months and 21 days old on the day democracy was born in South Africa. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t remember much about that big day in our nation’s history … but my Dad remembers it well. Every April 27th, he tells me all about it. […]
apartheid
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Apartheid nostalgia, education and agency
By Athambile Masola The media coverage about the shambolic state of education in South Africa (with a recent focus on the Eastern Cape) is disturbing. The views vacillate between inspiring hope for change and declaring doom over the future of the thousands of young people whose right to basic education is being flouted in the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The ANC must show leadership and reverse patronage and corruption
The reality of post-apartheid South Africa is one that shows the incapacity of the state to deliver services to the poor and marginalised. Service delivery protests are a frequent occurrence throughout the country. At the centre of the protests is a demand that the ANC must demonstrate leadership and decisiveness in fighting patronage and corruption […]
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A revolution of restitution
By Sharlene Swartz In President Zuma’s February State of the Nation address, he mentioned nine programmes dealing with restitution and redress that were to receive attention in the coming two to three years. Among these were (1) housing subsidies for those earning under R13000pa; (2) a retooling of the land reform process; (3) a new […]
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Embracing irrelevance is a bitter thing
In this week’s edition, the Mail & Guardian published comments made by former Democratic Alliance parliamentarian Raenette Taljaard on her growing isolation and ultimate separation from the DA in her book Up in Arms: Pursuing Accountability for the Arms Deal in Parliament. Reflecting on her last speech as a DA parliamentarian, delivered on November 9 […]
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The sad state of our nation
There is a “thing” in the air. It’s not quite fear, not quite anxiety, not quite hopelessness, a tension, a deep crack in our society which is threatening to shift the ground we walk on together, separately. We can no longer afford to carry on living side by side, barely able to look at each […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Sharpeville: Shame on you, ANC
Moving the commemoration of the Sharpeville massacre from its historic base is nothing more than an insult to those who laid down their lives. For the past 21 years, Sharpeville Day, as the day was known, was celebrated in Sharpeville, the place where 69 people lost their lives fighting for the freedoms and liberties we […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mbeki’s big blunder: apartheid reparations
By Isaac Mangena When tabling the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report in Parliament on April 2003, former president Thabo Mbeki lashed out at victims of apartheid brutality who were seeking reparations against multinational companies, most of which are based in the United States. “We consider it completely unacceptable that matters that are central to the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Traditional Courts Bill: Colonialism warmed up
The retabled Traditional Courts Bill, if adopted in its current form, will relegate at least 17 million South Africans to a separate and unequal judicial regime merely because they happen to live in the rural areas – a situation in many cases imposed on them by the apartheid regime. While cabinet’s planned “review” of Constitutional […]
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Malema is out but his message is the in thing
I was at Mbare township’s netball complex on Saturday April 3 2010 for ANC Youth League president Julius Malema’s rally. Mbare is Zimbabwe’s oldest high-density suburb and is also one of the areas that suffered tremendously from the Robert Mugabe regime’s shameful Operation Murambatsvina or Operation Get Rid of Filth, which left thousands of Zimbabweans […]
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A constructive comparison of Israel and apartheid South Africa
How legitimate are comparisons of Israel’s control over the Palestinians and apartheid South Africa’s treatment of blacks? As Israeli Apartheid Week sweeps through university campuses across the world, renewed attention is drawn to the parallels in the policies of both countries. This year, the frenzy generated by Israeli Apartheid Week is that much more intense […]
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Enough about race, let’s talk about class
If truth be told, black people are not interested in the confessions of white people who suffer with guilt from the sins of colonialism and apartheid. In the 21st century where both colonialism and apartheid have – depending on how you look at things – been defeated, we don’t want to know of people who […]