I met Marikana community member, mineworker and activist Tsepo M at a coffee shop in Melville. He had some business to attend to in Johannesburg and a colleague set up the meeting for me to discuss the current situation in Marikana. A man in his late 50s, Tsepo’s face bears the markings of years of […]
Marikana
Posted inNews/Politics
Robbing miners to pay robber barons
In untransformed economic structures — as they exist in the mines — apartheid is alive and kicking. For all the reasons we can give about the “illegal” strikes and the lawful correctness of the mining houses to fire the workers, this is part of an injustice that reigns supreme in our beautiful land. We all […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Let the miners eat cake, too
Ask any person if they’d like to see an end to rampant corruption and inequality and I bet that if they’re sane and moral they’d answer a resounding “yes!” Corruption has been rated as the biggest scourge afflicting our fledgling democracy. What I don’t understand is why economic inequality is not treated with the same […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Marikana: Political or economic unrest?
No one can argue that South Africa will never be the same again after the Marikana massacre. What remains arguable, however, is how the country moves forward in the aftermath of the incident. For business, the sooner everything dies down and workers go back to work the better. For workers, in sharp contrast, this is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Rich black, poor black
We in South Africa, especially in the black community, have, for a very long time, pretended to live and die in a classless society. As a result, we have never critically examined the role and impact of class difference in the fragmentation of our elusive unity. We have never been a homogeneous group and thus […]
Posted inBusiness, General, News/Politics
South Africa on the brink
Two weeks into the truckers’ strike and South Africa stands on the precipice of serious societal breakdown. The Marikana massacre was undoubtedly a tragic event in its own right, although it may prove to have merely been the spark that lit the fuse. The powder keg waiting to explode is the imminent shortage in liquid […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Goodbye democracy, hello tyranny
A lot’s been made of the downgrade in the investment rating awarded to South Africa. It’s clear the international business community has lost faith in our leadership. But there are also strong voices at home speaking out to warn us against the path we’re on. When a patriot of the stature of Bishop Rubin Phillip […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why I won’t vote ANC…or DA
I was five years old when SA held its first democratic elections in 1994. I don’t recall much about election day other than the excitement my parents and their friends had about finally being able to cast their votes. Voting was a dream they shared with many other South Africans and its realisation marked a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Black diamonds sold out
The deep rumbles of discontent that have exploded into an orgy of violence among the poor in Marikana and other flashpoints are the stigma of the depravation of “black diamonds” who constitute the growing black middle class. Over the last 18 years, especially with the advent of affirmative action and black economic empowerment, we have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
After Marikana, is it the same country?
Disbelief followed by an irresistible urge to suppress; nausea, then denial. Like most people, I saw the Marikana massacre on television news. Unlike most South Africans, I saw it far away, in a hotel in Rome, and through the frustrating eyes of the foreign media. Suddenly, it seemed my country had turned into Syria. Days […]
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 […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Marikana: An orgy of opportunism in the face of disaster
I have resisted writing on the Marikana disaster for a few weeks now because of how the tragic events quickly degenerated into a political football in a disgusting blame game match. The tragedy has simply descended into an awfully obscene orgy of politicians, media, analysts and many other armchair critics. But now I can’t ignore […]