On March 1 we watched in disbelief and horror as a young Mozambican man, Mido Macia, was forcibly handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged behind the vehicle as he cried out for them to stop. When the car eventually arrived at the police station eyewitnesses say he was further beaten by […]
apartheid
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
White South Africans are victims too
On March 17 1992 the National Party, under former president FW de Klerk’s leadership, asked white South Africans a difficult question in the form of a referendum. The question was: “Do you support the continuation of the reform process which the state president began on February 2 1990 and which is aimed at a new […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Party bosses: A tyranny of the fanatical
The irrational behaviour of some political leaders is denigrating faith in the social contract that unites our post-conflict society. That same contract underpins the necessary wealth-creation efforts integral to the achievement of a non-racial, non-sexist, non-xenophobic and democratic society. In essence, power-hungry men and women are drawing the entire country into an unnecessary state of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The cult of the African National Congress
I recently came across George Orwell’s 1984. Orwell is known for his insight into the behaviour of revolutionary governments. What I found in the book had me gasping for air. 1984 is set in a post-revolution world divided into three regions: Oceania, Eastacia and Eurasia. Winston, the protagonist, is based in Oceania. Oceania is ruled […]
Posted inGeneral
Black man, weep
Yesterday (Friday) I decided to simmer down after a busy week so I got two movies. The one was titled Mama Flora’ Family (1997) and the other The Help (2011). Both movies are about the American south and the plight of the ”Negros”. They trace the personal trials of the protagonists within the larger suppressive […]
Posted inBusiness
Amplats passing the buck after pocketing the rand
No wonder Anglo American Platinum, the world’s largest platinum producer, is fixing to lay off at least 14 000 workers. According to the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, the remuneration of a mineworker increased by an average of 30% each year between 1999 and 2011. I highly doubt the average mineworker increased his or […]
Posted inGeneral
We need to get over apartheid
This past week I have been confronted once more with the debate as to whether we should ‘’talk’’ about apartheid and by extension race relations. First I tuned into Eusebius McKaiser’s talk show on 702 where a gentleman called in to ask whether ‘’we can stop talking about race every day’’ and McKaiser responded by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Redi’s story of healing sugar-coats black suffering
Redi Tlhabi’s Endings and Beginnings opens with a murder scene. A bullet-riddled young, black male body is lying dead at a street corner and the whole community has come out to celebrate. He was a gangster, murderer, rapist and robber. It is payback time for Soweto’s haunted history of jack-rollers — the girl kidnapping phenomenon […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dear ‘These Blacks’
So much has happened since last we spoke, I have been most distracted, these past years, unpicking knots in my mind. My childhood was spent being told that you were inferior, by people who let you raise me. You fed me, carried me on your back and played with me. Imagine that. Abandoned by my […]
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 inNews/Politics
The struggle has long lost its purpose
It would seem that as we approach the 20th anniversary of freedom and democracy, the exact purpose and meaning of the liberation struggle for democracy has become one of the most misunderstood or distorted activities of the last 100 years. Much of the analysis of its achievements tends to focus on non-revolutionary activities like ANC […]
Posted inNews/Politics
My black president does me wrong
A friend recently posted rare footage of Steve Biko in an interview on German TV on his blog. The week of the 35th anniversary of Biko’s murder was a difficult one for South Africa. In a hard-hitting op-ed for the Mail&Guardian, Andile Mngxitama argues that we are not talking about a dream deferred, but a […]