History Matters

May 6 2012 at 09:36am By Donwald Pressly. Comment on this story Independent Newspapers Declaring that her ministry was not “a Hollywood” set, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson instigated a trail of destruction through her department on Friday by suspending the acting deputy director-general in charge of the fisheries sub-department, allegedly on the [...]

Source: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/2012/05/06/the-forgotten-toll-road by John GI Clarke | 06 May, 2012 00:54 Until South Africa heeds the lessons from e-tolling nightmares in Gauteng and beyond, it will be condemned to repeat them The Gauteng e-tolling saga has become a disaster of titanic proportions for Sanral CEO Nazir Alli. A century after the sinking of the supposedly unsinkable [...]

In response to Rapule Tamane’s “The strident tune of a one-man band” (M&G 01/08/2011), Yunus Carrim and Ben Martins are correct to argue that to reduce the SACP General Secretary’s apparent authoritarian behavior and intolerance to his “personal whim is simplistic”. As they correctly state, Nzimande does not simply conduct himself of his own accord [...]

Read the article here: Opinion Analysis by Prof. Jonathan Jansen Vice-Chancellor and Rector: University of the Free State

Recent calls for nationalisation of mines and expropriation of land  without compensation have  evoked a sense of anxiety  and discomfort in  sections of  South African society,  the international financial sector and observers of South Africa’s policy processes. These ideas are said to be to be based on the Freedom Charter, adopted by the Congress of the People, on [...]

Some people are so indistinct, its difficult to imagine that they are there, even when alive.  Others have so much presence, that its impossible to imagine they have gone, even when dead.  Kader Asmal was irrepressible, wonderfully so, at times unrestrainedly provocative.  He engaged lustily with life.  Ever full of spirit, he fought the battle [...]

Newspaper article from Daily Dispatch: Xolobeni – red card greed by NOMBONISO GASA Uhlohlesakhe-khe-khe-khe-khe….! The big voice boomed from the wireless radio of my childhood signalling the beginning of a radio drama about a man who only stuffed his own stomach. That voice had the authority of ringing bells of a Christian church calling believers to pray on a Sunday morning. We, [...]

It is a cruel fact that in the last 15 years the Humanities and the Social Sciences have been severely affected by the dire need to respond to the obvious deficit in engineering, natural scientific, informational and managerial needs.  This downscaling of the importance of the human and social forms of scholarship has had a [...]

by Raymond Suttner With Ma Albertina Sisulu’spassing, many feel they havelost a political figure, but alsosomeone who meant much more thanthat, who sensitively but where necessary firmly, guided others on a path thatwould help them as human beings.Ma Sisulu was warm and generallysmiling while she hugged and kissed allher children. She combined this withstrict ethical norms [...]