By Janet Jobson I never imagined that one of the biggest challenges I would face this year would be how to get young white South Africans interested in joining a network of young leaders driving public innovation. It had simply never occurred to me that it would be difficult. After all, my whole life I’ve […]
youth
Posted inGeneral
White males, naked capitalism and ending economic apartheid
The country watches transfixed as the ANC creaks and groans like a wooden ship trapped in Antarctic ice. The ANC has long kept the lid on things, like some benevolent dictator might have done. But now the ship threatens to break apart. There goes the life boat. People cling to its splintered timbers hoping these […]
Posted inGeneral
Children are the future
On the occasion of my 28th birthday in March this year, the message from my mother was slightly different from that of years gone past: “Happy birthday son. You know I’m now eagerly anticipating the day you bring someone home and of course, also looking to hold your child in my hands.” From where I […]
Posted inGeneral
Disenchanted youth of the world: Tomorrow’s hope
The youth of the world are disenchanted — disenchanted by the older generation’s politics as well as their economics, by their ideologies and their religions and by their inability to halt ecological destruction. And they are the ones who will replace the current leaders of the world. What are the chances that they might just […]
Posted inNews/Politics
18-year-olds on SA’s 18th Freedom Day
The Mail & Guardian asked 18-year-old South Africans, the born-frees, about what this Freedom Day means to them. Here are their responses: I was born in January 1994. To me, Freedom Day means success for South Africa and its citizens. For the past 18 years the democratically elected government has not disappointed. Much has been […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A political affiliation to Pedro
By Sarah Silber I was exactly seven months and 21 days old on the day democracy was born in South Africa. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t remember much about that big day in our nation’s history … but my Dad remembers it well. Every April 27th, he tells me all about it. […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Gang rape, jackrolling, lepanta: a societal problem
I grew up in a village outside Polokwane in Limpopo. At school and in the community we would always hear older boys talking about lepanta. As a young boy, I knew lepanta to be a Sotho word for “belt”. I soon learnt that it was coined by boys in the street corners to mean “when […]
Posted inGeneral
Gauging Swaziland’s ‘cultural boycott’
By Nondumiso Hlophe The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) believes that a “cultural boycott” – by musicians invited to perform in the Kingdom of Swaziland – is an effective way to address political opinions in Swaziland. Do you? Last year, the South-African based organisation SSN called on artists to boycott Swaziland by refusing to perform in […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Malema may be gone, but issues still remain
Late on Saturday morning, in true African time, a ramrod Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a flinty speech that was not only a preamble to the African National Congress’s verdict on youth league leader Julius Malema, but a warning sign to the rest of the party: ill-discipline will not be tolerated. By upholding the guilty verdict, the […]
Posted inGeneral
Political parties — part of the solution or the problem?
By Amukelani Mayimele As a young woman determined to fight an unjust system that worked against the poor I joined South African Students Congress (Sasco) during my first year at university. The number of people we helped each year did not represent half of the people who needed the help. We spent the rest of […]
Posted inGeneral
Education the key to our economic freedom, not land expropriation
By Khethelo Xulu The gloomy outlook on the attainment of economic freedom in SA is yet to be spelt out to the disadvantaged and desperate young citizens of the nation. Unemployment, poverty and the lack of access to natural resources such as land are the issues that plague our societies the most. In particular, they […]