There is nothing quite as satisfying as watching a prosperously plump politician slow roasting in difficulties of his own making. Smothered under lashings of public opprobrium following the Marikana massacre, President Jacob Zuma was this week fairly sizzling. It’s all so unfair, was the theme. The African National Congress had done more to improve the […]
Marikana
Posted inNews/Politics
0800MALEMA
By Lukhona Mnguni 0800MALEMA is the number. Don’t get left behind, make that call. It’s free of charge. Do you want an economic freedom fighter at your doorstep? Just dial and you’ll receive one in a flash. There’s no diary, first come first serve, but you will be attended to. Qualifying criteria: 1 You’re a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Post-Marikana, it’s time freedom became visible
Over the past 18 years too much attention has been paid to history or its makers. You see, the struggle stalwarts are part of our history but it’s the ideals they fought for that is our heritage. Let’s admit it’s time the struggle stalwarts retire from centre stage. There’s been too much navel-gazing. We must […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Wake up white South Africa!
By Andrew Tudhope As an educated person, I think it is possible for me to lose touch with the reality of the world around me while I search for abstract truths; be they mathematical, economical, philosophical or literal. I can use such education to find many attacks on Vlismas’ article. His tone is too severe […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dear Whitey
I hope you are well. Even though I’m sure you are not really interested, I am fine. I know that you are not too concerned about others, until you hear about them on Twitter, or Facebook — or someone at the office sends you an angry email, summarising something they’ve heard about that could ruin […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Torture, it’s cowardly and cruel
The death of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko this month 35 years ago shocked the world. It was the cruel manner in which he died that highlighted the undesirable effects of torture by law enforcers. Biko was tortured to death while held at Pretoria Central Prison in 1977. Apartheid security policy allegedly tried to get […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Marikana a marker of profound dissatisfaction countrywide
The explosion that at Marikana mine left 10 dead to union violence and 34 dead to police gunfire oddly caught the government by surprise. It was as if social discontent is not a seething issue in South Africa, surging constantly against the breakwaters of complacency. But it seems that neither the government’s intelligence networks nor […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Marikana, the sign of a schizophrenic state
As assault charges are laid against the police in the aftermath of the Marikana massacre, the outrageous reality is that torture is still not criminalised in South Africa. A draft law called the Prevention and Combating of Torture of Persons Bill is before parliament but far from adoption. The relevant parliamentary committee has postponed the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Who’s behind the Marikana murder charge?
The decision to charge the protesting Marikana miners who were arrested by police with the murder of their 34 colleagues who died at the hands of the authorities is patently misguided. In this regard not only will the state’s efforts to prove the necessary dolus required for murder remain elusive but the alleged employment of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Marikana: Time to rethink mining rights?
By Takura Zhangazha The tragic and fatal shooting of 34 mineworkers in South Africa has sadly brought back memories of the violence of the apartheid years. And because memories of apartheid are not only limited to South Africa, the killing fields of Marikana must also be viewed as part of the Southern African narrative of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
After 33 years of stability, the labour landscape shudders
The tragic shootings at Lonmin’s Marikana mine is a wake-up call to South Africans who imagined that the hard yards had ended with the advent of democracy. It is also a seismic shock to a labour-relations system that has weathered more than three decades. At the very least, the shooting to death of 34 miners […]
Posted inLifestyle
Meaning in suffering
I have written this with the Marikana massacre in the back of my mind. It is a pity it is in the back of my mind, where it should actually be in the front. I think of the surviving of those mowed down, the frightened families, the grief-stricken mothers, the bewildered, sad and probably hungry […]