While every other black leader in a post-1994 South Africa has been constructed as an inferior “other” by the dominant discourse, Nelson Mandela has been deified as a saintly black and is held in high esteem by whiteness. He has been hailed as a decent and rational African by the moderate liberal white discourse and […]
Nelson Mandela
Posted inNews/Politics
The A to Z of things we cannot blame on apartheid
At Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, President Jacob Zuma made the point that “he (Mandela) told us that the promises of democracy would not be met overnight … and we all agreed with him … ”. Was this a co-option of Madiba somehow to justify the slow pace of service delivery? While it is true that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
It’s do nothing days in Zuma’s la-la land
South Africa’s ‘do nothing’ season, officially known as the festive break, is in effect a month-long shutdown that traditionally runs from December 16 to mid-January. The bad economic news is that this time around, it’s going to run for several months longer, at least up to the general election. With the December 5 death of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mandela the communist?
By Dr John Lamola Stephen Ellis’s approach in the brouhaha that has followed the SACP’s December 10 2013 statement that Nelson Mandela was a member of its central committee when he was captured in August 1962 exposes the enormity of the implications of this claim of the SACP. It places the matter within the context […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Born frees do not exist
Post-apartheid South Africa has many myths in different spheres of public life. The sphere of the battle of ideas has its fair share of such mythology. Since 1994, concepts such as South African exceptionalism, rainbow nation, lost generation, post-colony, white genocide, white fears and recently, born frees and many others have emerged across the political […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Signs of the times: The spectacle of mourning Mandela
By Matthew Rumbold “In an economic, elliptic, hence, dogmatic way, I would say that there is no politics without an organisation of the time and space of mourning, without a topolitology of the sepulcher, without an anamnesic and thematic relation to the spirit as ghost, without an open hospitality to the guest as ghost.” Jacques […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Madiba and lessons in leadership
There is a common sentiment that Madiba’s passing enjoins us to pause and seriously reflect on the lessons of life that he has bequeathed to us and ask how seriously we have applied these lessons in our own lives. Indeed there could never be a better time to engage in this exercise and the themes […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The Mandela moment: Now it’s time to move forward South Africa
The past few weeks have been a milestone in our country’s history — there’s no doubt about that. We’ve made huge pronouncements about how we are so very thankful for all that Madiba has done for us, how we pledge to continue and honour his legacy, how so much still needs to change. But what […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Don’t be another Mandela
By Kelebone Lekunya I think we have to acknowledge the big role that Nelson Mandela played for the “liberation” of the blacks and whites in South Africa. Nevertheless, I don’t think we should be obsessed with him to the extent of thinking of everything as being Mandela. The man played his part and left us […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Plotting the parameters of genocide – the SACP and Zuma booing
The ancient Chinese thinker Confucius is reputed to have said: “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper names.” At the risk of inviting the vitriol that attracts calling things by their proper names, I will testify, hopefully not in a kangaroo court, that the SACP’s statement of December 11 2013 which […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Lessons in speechwriting: Obama on Madiba
By Rob Turrell I listened to Barack Obama’s speech about Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium last Tuesday week in awe. I had read his tribute on Mandela’s death and I wondered if he would repeat it or give a new speech. He gave a new speech. I was amazed. I’ll tell you why. Rhetorically speaking […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The danger of making Mandela apolitical
By Nhlanhla Mtaka It is true, nature has the capacity to force us humans to act. This was evident the day former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela died. On that day the message from Mother Nature seems to be clear: stop individualising the multiple and avoid the trap of making Mandela apolitical. Mandela died on December […]