History Matters

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 [...]

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, [...]

By Jane Duncan Christopher McMichael is a PhD candidate in the politics department of Rhodes University. His research investigates the ways in which the international governing body of football, FIFA, used the security arrangements for the 2010 World Cup to cannibalise public funds to the benefit of the Association and its sponsors. South Africa had [...]

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 [...]

By Mondli Makhanya – Sunday Times 21st February 2010 At the height of the battle between Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky, the former was doing everything in his power to ensure that Lenin’s mantle passed on to him. In later years, having won the struggle, Stalin went to the extreme lengths of airbrushing Trotsky out [...]

Allister Sparks Published: 2009/09/02 THE decision by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) not to refer the complaint of gross misconduct against Cape Judge President John Hlophe to a formal hearing and to find him not guilty is disturbing, but hardly surprising. It has been apparent from the start of this drawn-out saga that there has [...]

What to make of the war of words that has erupted between Jonathan Jansen and Jessie Duarte? Briefly, ANC spokesperson Duarte is demanding that recently installed University of the Free State Rector Jonathan Jansen apologise for calling Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga a “lazy and incompetent minister, if one takes into account her record as [...]

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA Jul 14 2009 14:25 The government is still committed to halving unemployment and poverty by 2014, despite the global economic downturn, National Planning Commission Minister Trevor Manuel said on Tuesday. Outlining the government’s Medium Strategic Framework (MTSF) in Pretoria, Manuel said its main focus was to minimise the impact of the economic [...]

Comfort Ero and Piers Pigou.All Africa News 29 June 2009 Just ahead of this week’s African Union summit in Libya, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has advocated an old and discredited approach for dealing with African heads of state facing international justice, write Comfort Ero and Piers Pigou.When a leader of South Africa’s ruling African [...]