By Shireen Mukadam I had a dream. I was lying on the grass of the Boston Commons surrounded by three new friends. A Jordanian-Syrian, studying in Australia. A Catalonian Spaniard working in Colombia. And Marube from Kenya — a 52-year-old, who has aspirations of resuming his law degree, which he commenced at 26 in 1986 […]
Nelson Mandela
Posted inGeneral
How communists paid the price and capitalists scooped the pool in post-apartheid SA
When Mandela first met with Sol Kerzner it was not, as was the case with most of his post-release meetings with big-hitting capitalist exploiters, to solicit (or more accurately, quietly demand) a large donation for black upliftment projects. Instead, the purpose was purely political. This was mid-1990, a time when it was not at all […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Only an apartheid president would defend apartheid
It’s amazing how many whites keep singing the song that apartheid was a heinous crime against humanity, that it was inhumane, and that they didn’t support it. It’s also amazing how they become silent corroborators when apartheid villains like FW de Klerk go on international public platforms not only to justify apartheid but to actually […]
Posted inGeneral
Those who hate Mandela
I have never thought harder about whether or not to publish a piece. I do not want to write this piece, but feel compelled because I cannot sit quietly by as Nelson Mandela is rubbished by people who would divide and rule us. We should not jump to their bait, but be aware of the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The price of no more Gaddafis? No more Mandelas
Gaddafi may have lost his final battle last night, but South Africa lost the war. As the last country to stand with the embattled “father of the nation” in spite of the West’s determination to get rid of him, South Africa’s international reputation was dragged through the mud as harshly as Gaddafi’s bloodied corpse was […]
Posted inGeneral
Mandela and the Dalai Lama
So damaging was the fall-out over South Africa’s denying the Dalai Lama a visa when he wished to attend a peace conference a couple of years ago that it was hard to imagine such a blunder being repeated. At the time, it was perhaps the most egregious example of the last administration’s penchant for shloeping […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Me and Nelson Mandela
I love to cook and so there came a point during the struggle, where I gave up full-time journalism, became a full-time activist, part of the underground, and after long, endless meetings, would cook for strugglistas. Murphy Morobe loved my veal Marengo, Cyril Ramaphosa would call at 11pm after going to mines and speaking to […]