Financial Mail editor Barney Mthombothi’s latest column Jacob Zuma has, it seems, changed in a matter of a few months from a tsunami that sweeps everything before it to a hyena that’s turned the state into a feeding trough (or is it a carcass?) for its immediate family while the poor struggle to survive. People [...]
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A blog promoting citizenship and democracy in South Africa
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22. August 2010
The bad, the ugly… and the good!
Yesterday I returned home after participating in the ‘All African Moot’ competition. This competition, which was expertly organised and run by the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights, saw the coming together of 73 universities from around the continent. The students were required to draft memorials, which are in essence one’s argument in written [...]
22. August 2010
The Springbok and the rainbow nation – EISH.
I subscribe to South Africa: The Good News By Ian Macdonald (SA Goodnews) Here we go again. For the umpteenth time, the issue of whether the Springbok, as the emblem for the South African national rugby side, should be scrapped is once again being debated. The poor old Bok has emerged from these debates before, [...]
22. August 2010
From ibharu to amajoin: living among other languages
by Charlyn Dyers One of the untold stories about language is the large percentage of Xhosa learners in former coloured schools and the ways in which they adapt their language skills. Research done at Wesbank, one of the newest townships in Cape Town, showed that the ongoing migration from the rural areas to its cities [...]
1. August 2010
IS RECONCILIATION REAL? Intimate dialogue can move us forward
by Lindy Wilson In the depths of the country I opened an e-mail from Prof. Njabulo Ndebele inviting me to a Dialogue between four young South African novelists and Ariel Dorfman, the world-acclaimed Chilean-American author on Suspect Reconciliation to take place three days later at the Fugard Theatre. There was something in his personal tone [...]
8. July 2010
SA must fill policy gap that breeds xenophobia
NEVA MAKGETLA business day 07/07/2010 MEDIA reports of xenophobic threats have become commonplace. After the horrors of the last wave of attacks in 2008 that left more than 60 people dead, one would expect a more vigorous response from across society. Local mobilisation has been the key to preventing this kind of attack. But there [...]
8. July 2010
Xenophobic Threats have Become Commonplace
MEDIA reports of xenophobic threats have become commonplace. After the horrors of the last wave of attacks in 2008 that left more than 60 people dead, one would expect a more vigorous response from across society. Local mobilisation has been the key to preventing this kind of attack. But there needs to be more consistent [...]
11. June 2010
Crooked timber of humanity’ includes the ANC
JACOB DLAMINI – Business Day 11th June 2010 IT IS one of the many ironies of South African politics that the bitterest battles of our age have been waged within the ranks of the anti-apartheid movement itself — not between the movement and its foes. It is within the ranks of the African National Congress [...]
31. May 2010
Gender equality at risk
Attacks on sexuality rights are undermining constitutionalism, writes Raymond Suttner May 30, 2010 11:05 PM | By Raymond Suttner While noting government indecisiveness, especially at the top, we must recognise that much is still happening below and above the surface that might have far-reaching effects and require attention beyond this period. One way of addressing [...]
28. May 2010
Beware Bigotry: Some Thoughts on Free Speach and the Zapiro Cartoon
Prof. Mahmood Mamdani : Text of talk on receiving an honorary doctorate at the University o Johannesburg, 25th May, 2010 It warms my heart to see these flowing gowns. I congratulate you on work accomplished! For over a millennium, these gowns have been a symbol of high learning from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. [...]
11. May 2010
What is a South African?
We lack a unifying national identity, but there is a way forward, writes Ivor Chipkin May 10, 2010 11:49 PM | By Ivor Chipkin. Time live The Big Read:There is renewed interest in the question of whether “South Africans” exist. Both the Helen Suzman Foundation and the Gordon Institute for Business Science have recently made [...]
7. May 2010
Its Time for True Transformative Justice in SA
Its Time for True Transformative Justice in SA Suren Pillay Cape Times 2010-05-06 On a recent visit to a government agency- as a citizen, not a researcher- I began chatting with an affable front desk consultant. After some general conversation on the dire state of the world, she – of Afrikaner descent – confided to [...]
30. April 2010
Contested Indian Identity in Contemporary South Africa
By Imraan Buccus Date posted: 29 April 2010 on http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/472.1 One hundred and fifty years ago the first indentured Indians were brought to South Africa to work in sugar cane fields. They were soon joined by ‘passenger Indians’ who came of their own free will to trade. The indentured Indians were not the first Indians [...]
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WISER and CISA invite you to a public lecture on
‘The Life and Death of Dr. Abu Baker ‘Hurley’ Asvat, February 23, 1942-January 27, 1989’
By Jon Soske (Centre for Indian Studies in Africa, Wits)
Wednesday, 19th May 2010
18h30WISER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building
East Campus, Wits UniversityAt the time of his murder in 1989, Dr. Abu Baker ‘Hurley’ Asvat was widely revered as ‘the people’s doctor’ based on almost two decades of medical work in Soweto and over a dozen health projects initiated across the Transvaal as AZAPO’s Secretary of Health. Yet despite his close relationship with leading ANC figures like Albertina Sisulu and his significant role in major political events, Asvat’s name rarely appears in histories of the liberation struggle and his life’s work has been almost completely overshadowed by the controversial circumstances of his death. This lecture will discuss Asvat’s biography from his childhood in the multiracial Johannesburg neighbourhood of Vrededorp to his medical study and political activism as part of a PAC-aligned student group in Pakistan; from his leading role in non-racial cricket to his emergence as a central figure in Soweto’s life and politics. This talk will also reflect on the relationship between Lenasia and Soweto as social spaces during the years of apartheid and interrogate the ways in which apartheid racial categories—particularly ‘African’ and ‘Indian’—continue to structure how South African historians represent the recent past.
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2. September 2010
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