History Matters

The temptation to deploy identity politics is always tempting, but should be resisted, writes Mamphela Ramphele May 29, 2011 Sunday Times The contest for power in the run-up to the May 18 local elections raised a very sensitive issue of the ownership of national symbols, including former president Nelson Mandela. I had hoped that the [...]

by Ferial Haffajee news24 The first reason it lost the coloured and Indian vote is that the ANC sees it as a coloured and Indian vote – when it didn’t, the ANC was much more successful in these former strongholds. I’m black, as defined by Steve Biko, but apartheid meant that I spent my childhood [...]

by  Blade Nzimande – Jeremy Cronin 17 May 2011 – Tomorrow’s local government election Tomorrow, South Africans will be going to the polls for the third, non-racial local government election in our country’s history. Much is at stake. As the SACP we are confident that once more the ANC, supported by its Alliance partners, will [...]

KWANELE SOSIBO for the Mail & Guardian  | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Apr 21 2011 00:00 Chalk inscriptions still mark Voortrekker Street in Ficksburg’s Market Square where Andries Tatane died after police allegedly beat and shot him during a march to the Setsoto local municipality offices on Wednesday last week. Phillip Selokoe, his former high [...]

ADOPTED BY THE FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE 20-23 January 2011 Post-apartheid capitalism is leaving a trail of hunger, poverty, anger and misery. The wealthy elite, the bosses and their hangers on refuse to concede a single inch to the urgent needs of the majority. They label even the most modest reforms as the thin edge of [...]

This article raises a few pertinent questions about reactions or lack thereof of the Tunisian population to Abu Ali’s authoritarian excesses. It implicitly suggests that while populations in the African continent have had a propensity to endure totalitarian regimes for extended periods, Maghreb Region, of which Tunisia is an integral part, has a rich history [...]

Simeon BlackOctober 18, 2010 at 11:24am Subject: IS ANC DIVIDED ON MEDIA CLAMPDOWN? Democracy in South Africa is currently at a crossroads with locaql and international resistance still building up against the ANC’s efforts to impose a clampdown on press freedom in the country. While numerous groups and actions are dedicated to protect our constitutional [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]