By Aalia Cassim The popular narrative in the run-up to the elections sprawled across South African televisions, billboards and suburban walls is largely premised on service-delivery successes in post-apartheid South Africa. It is true that the asset and service deficit characteristic under the apartheid government has markedly improved. But almost daily reports of misused municipal […]
elections2014
Posted inNews/Politics
I am not voting against the ANC
On Monday I will cast my special vote in the 2014 national and provincial elections. This is the fourth South African election I am eligible to vote in, and this is the first time I will vote for the Democratic Alliance (DA). I was set on voting for the DA long before the Economist endorsed […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Elections 2014: Everything and nothing remains the same
By this time next week, the election dust will have settled. One doesn’t have to be clairvoyant or even wait for the results, to discern the shape of the future. Everything will be the same. Nothing will be the same. The ANC will again form the government and the DA will again form the official […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
A ‘good story’ to tell – for some
I must admit, the ANC’s election moniker (you know, that it has a “good story” to tell) makes me very angry – probably much more than it should. In the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death, and the feeling that we’ll never again experience such collective unity or progress as a nation, the ANC’s election spin […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Voting is not enough: Beyond the ‘good story/bad story’ debate
It is easy to be an extremist. Taking a blind, one-sided, all-or-nothing viewpoint on an issue allows you to skip the nuance, texture, and blurry greyness of debates. South Africa’s “good story/bad story” debate has politicians locking horns as the extremities in political speeches now surface. Poet Maya Angelou once mused that, “all great achievements […]
Posted inNews/Politics
They can’t vote. We can. They need our help.
Are you voting next Wednesday? (I hope so.) Here’s something to think about. You’re not just voting for yourself — you’re voting on behalf of a whole lot of South Africans who can’t. Eighteen million of them, in fact — 37% of South Africans are under the age of 18, and they are the ones […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Let the youth take over the ANC
The duty of the young is to improve upon the past which is, largely, a world created or messed up by their parents. What we are witnessing now is that moment when the great grandchildren of Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko and others must make a choice in terms of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
EFF/DA/ANC/Agang: Same mess, different party
“Power belongs to the people until they vote, then they are represented.” This is the time of pledges and hope. A time when misogynists are promising to uphold women’s rights, homophobes championing LGBTI rights, racists speaking about the struggle and xenophobes talking Pan-Africanism. A time when you realise who really shares your views and who […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Buti Manamela’s moment of truth: Luthuli House rules
Buti Manamela, ANC MP and leader of the Young Communist League, caused a stir in Parliament this week when he stated bluntly that he acts on orders from Luthuli House, the ANC’s headquarters. He was speaking at the meeting where the ANC used its parliamentary majority to shut down the ad hoc committee tasked with […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How DA rhetoric propels black pathology stereotypes
“There is a kind of arrogance and racism that assumes if you are black, then you are a member of the ANC” uttered Mamphela Ramphele (paraphrased) at the Dispatch Dialogues hosted by the Daily Dispatch in conjunction with the University of Fort Hare in East London two weeks ago. These remarks were made at an […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Condemned to obscurity: The state of our population register and the right to vote
By Liesl Muller I recently attended an election-observer training session in preparation for next month’s elections. I was inspired by the chance to play my part in the democratic process shaping the future of our country. Voting is an opportunity many South Africans did not have in the years before democracy and which South Africans […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How the ANC’s gravity-defying levitation is achieved
As South Africa’s political parties approach the final straight it’s yet another one-horse race, if the bookies are to be believed. The African National Congress, says the latest polls, is set to achieve close to the two-thirds majority that it has maintained for the past 20 years. The opposition Democratic Alliance will apparently be fortunate […]