History Matters

WISER, University of the Witwatersrand Monday June 13 2011 Venue WISER Seminar Room* When Lewis Nkosi passed away on September 6, 2010 at the age of 73, South Africa lost an intellectual and literary voice as unique for its lucidity as its peerless range. Novelist, essayist, critic, playwright, editor, journalist, and scholar, Nkosi earned each [...]

 Nalini Naidoo Natal Witness 15 Nov 2010   It’s funny how celebrating a historical landmark can become fraught with anxiety. This could only happen in a country like South Africa where, it appears, nothing is simple. Then again, we cannot make light of these anxieties as we come from a past of divide and rule and [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

by Omar Badsha and Jon Soske During the latter half of 2010, a series of events commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the first Indian indentured laborers in Natal will take place across South Africa. The preparations have already inspired wide-spread debate; individuals from a variety of communities and political perspectives have raised similar questions: to [...]

by Allistor Spark, March 2010 As Julius Malema’s misdemeanours multiply, one of the most egregious has been allowed to go unchallenged for months. This was his misrepresentation of ex-President Nelson Mandela’s position on nationalisation. In punting his own populist campaign for the ANC to adopt a policy of nationalising the country’s mines, Malema has sought [...]

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 [...]

Seelan Naidoo Representations of the Robben Island Museum in the public domain have over the past five months been characterised by confusing commentary, accumulating unanswered questions, significant omissions and even serious misrepresentation.  This opinion piece is in the interest of a beleaguered institution that continues to incur reputational damage that it emphatically does not deserve. [...]

The Times – 8 September 2009 Yusuf Dadoo’s legacy is our tradition of non-racialism, writes Yunus Momoniat AT A conference last week, delegates mulled over the legacy of Yusuf Dadoo, a leader of the Transvaal Indian Congress, a communist leader and respected activist. The key theme of the conference was the question of non-racialism and [...]