“A giant is about to depart, leaving political pygmies to divide his cloak and squabble about who is the rightful heir. The media will be wall to wall with plaudits, the world will groan with grief.” I wrote those words in a column some five months ago, as Nelson Rolihlala Mandela lay in a Pretoria […]
Nelson Mandela
Posted inNews/Politics
We are the ones who will have to be greater than Mandela
You are greater than Mandela. Our greatest strength as a people is when we are at our weakest. Waking up in our humble homes to the news that the founding father of this nation, the great Nelson Mandela has passed on, we were not quite ready to believe that. But over the years, ever since […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Shallow rhetoric, Mandela and personal responsibility
I still vaguely remember the first time I found out who Nelson Mandela was. My parents had an ANC sticker in their bedroom wardrobe that carried Mandela’s face. I did not know anything about him at the time, but it wasn’t until my mother caught me trying to remove the sticker that I would first […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Madiba, this is why I am a public servant
I posted this on my Facebook profile, today. I figured I would share it widely on this worst of days. He held my hand for twenty minutes and told me of the vision he had for our country. No, I said, I was a journalist. It is all I ever wanted to be. I loved […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mandela in reflection: The laws of admiration
In 1986 the French thinker Jacques Derrida published a text in a collection of protest tributes that he co-edited with Mustapha Tlili entitled For Nelson Mandela. The English translation of Derrida’s tribute is titled “The laws of reflection: Nelson Mandela, in admiration”. I have chosen to subvert this title by way of re-ordering its words. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mandela a symbol of social cohesion beyond black and white
What happened outside the private-owned Mediclinic in Arcadia, Pretoria, in the last six weeks that Nelson Mandela was in hospital was neither a make-believe kaleidoscope of non-racialism nor uncaring citizens trying to be what they are not. Rather, this monumental expression of solidarity, cooperation and interaction of a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, trans-class and largely public display […]
Posted inMedia
Free Mandela forever Cape Town
This last week, the fabulous young South African and increasingly world-renowned artist Faith47, posted an online petition to ask the City of Cape Town to please reconsider their decision NOT to restore the well-known and loved FREE MANDELA slogan on the wall of a cemetery in the suburb of Observatory. The slogan, that has been […]
Posted inHealth, News/Politics
Is the timing of Madiba’s passing an ANC political strategy?
I thought I’d said my last on the sad topic of Madiba’s illness. Tofolux would have certainly been pleased, as both my last two posts dealing with Madiba clearly upset him/her. But it was not Tofolux’s comment that got my attention. That honour belongs to BillyC, whose comment I initially disregarded as being impossible. It […]
Posted inEquality, Health, News/Politics
Has Mandela’s medical treatment created a bad precedent?
If Madiba is recovering in a manner consistent with the public announcements of being able to go home “soon” I will be the first to admit that my expectation that his days were severely numbered was wrong, and be very pleased that I was. Because it really did not sound good. Being “critical but stable” […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Egypt needs a Mandela
The tumultuous tides of human protesters on the streets, bridges and squares of Cairo and Istanbul, speak of frustration with the world as it is and a yearning for a better life. A clear and precise vision of that better life as articulated in the Freedom Charter by our visionary Nelson Mandela is what contributed […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Open letter to all two-faced apartheid beneficiaries
Since it’s the open letter season, I thought I would pen a humble one to all unrepentant apartheid collaborators and benefactors who claim to love Madiba. The love so widely professed for #Madiba by the former apartheid collaborators and benefactors should be shown in deeds. So many profess this undying love and admiration for #Madiba […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma and Obama tango to the Death March
The timing of United States President Barack Obama’s two-day state visit to South Africa was less than ideal. Overshadowing the political arena was a looming, distracting historical backdrop: former president Nelson Mandela’s faltering but determined struggle to live. Both leaders were acutely aware that they had to avoid any perception of insensitivity to the prevailing […]