By Jongisilo Pokwana ka Menziwa May 23 2013 Pretoria – Once again our rite of passage, initiation, a cultural practice that dates back hundreds if not thousands of years, has been plagued by catastrophe. News reports suggest that 27 young boys have lost their lives while undergoing this ritual in Mpumalanga over the past two [...]
May 20, 2013
Why Marikana is on a knife-edge
May 19 2013 at 11:58am LAST May colleagues went to Rustenburg to gain insight into the Impala strike and to assess the organisational and political ramifications of the fallout between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and its rank and file. One of the people we met was a member of the independent workers’ committee [...]
May 20, 2013
W(h)ither the whites?
Frans Cronje 19 May 2013 10:00 The 1994 transition liberated black South Africans from oppression, but also liberated whites, writes Frans Cronje. Many whites argue they had a tough time after the 1994 transition, as equity and empowerment policies ensured economic opportunities were closed off to them. Others argue that poverty and unemployment figures have [...]
May 16, 2013
Orania: The place where time stood still
By Rebecca Davis 16 May 2013 The Northern Cape Afrikaner enclave of Orania is a topic much beloved by documentary-makers and journalists. This is for one good reason: however much you might deplore the principle of cultural self-determination, Orania is fascinating. The volkstaat has its own currency – the Ora – and the streets appear [...]
May 15, 2013
Morgan Freeman: Don’t accept an award tarnished with apartheid and colonialism
26 March 2013 Dear Mr. Freeman, It is with great disappointment that the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has learned that you will be accepting the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University Award ‘the Key of Knowledge Award’ on May 6, 2013 [1]. We hope that a personal appeal [...]
May 14, 2013
Unions suspect restructuring collusion
May 13 2013 By Terry Bell. Did the management of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and the government do a deal behind closed doors regarding retrenchments and shaft closures? Amid a swirl of rumour and innuendo and in an atmosphere of considerable distrust, this is an allegation heard across the union divide. This is because the [...]
May 13, 2013
Painful past lives on in classrooms
13 May 2013 City Press Deplorable conditions at schools indicate a failure of our national imagination to conceive of anything better for our children, writes Njabulo S Ndebele About 20 minutes into our visit to Putuma Junior Secondary School, I had seen enough. I was to feel this way at other schools, to disengage from [...]
May 9, 2013
Ahmed Kathrada writes to actor Morgan Freeman after visit to Palestine-Israel
Dear Morgan – Friend of Democratic South Africa, Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ahmed Kathrada. I first met you in person when I had the privilege of guiding you on your visit to Robben Island some years ago. I was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Madiba and others in the Rivonia [...]
May 6, 2013
Spooks warned of Gupta influence
By Ranjeni Munusamy A persistent question following the Gupta jet being allowed to land at Waterkloof Air Force Base is “How could this have happened?” The answer is rooted in debacle in the Department of State Security two years ago, when the former intelligence heads tried to warn government that the Gupta brothers posed a [...]
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May 23, 2013
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