History Matters
A blog promoting citizenship and democracy in South Africa
History Matters is an initiative of South African History Online. Click here to visit the SAHO site.
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 [...]
Continue reading...7. May 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...18. April 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...7. March 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...21. February 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...13. November 2009
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. [...]
Continue reading...8. September 2009
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 [...]
Continue reading...7. September 2009
Keynote Address by SACP General Secretary and Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Blade Nzimande at the Yusuf Dadoo Centenary Conference University of Johannesburg 4 September 2009 The chairperson, Cde Omar Badsha University of Johannesburg Vice Chancellor, Professor Ihron Rensberg, Honoured guests and conference participants, Comrades and friends, At the outset let me take [...]
Continue reading...19. July 2009
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 [...]
Continue reading...18. July 2009
allAfrica.com: South Africa: False Narrative Feeds a Potentially Ruinous Respect for Unions (Page 1 of 1) Michael Kransdorff And Marian Tupy Business Day (Johannesburg)17 July 2009 Johannesburg — WHETHER under apartheid or democracy, SA’s politicians have always liked to admonish the country’s businessmen. Apartheid politicians believed corporate profit-making undermined white baasskap, while SA’s current rulers [...]
Continue reading...6. July 2009
The Sunday Times July 4th 2009 Too much emphasis on suffering and sacrifice can leave a hard residue of victimhood and entitlement We Are a nation-in-the-making and we cannot afford to squander our assets. Our knowledge about ourselves — our identity as a nation — depends on our understanding of our past and how others [...]
Continue reading...25. May 2009
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Continue reading...13. May 2009
John Saul I have been, for most of my adult life, a student of southern African, including South African, affairs, I was pleased but also intrigued to receive an invitation from Ingrid and the South African Association of Canadian Studies to come to SA to give several talks and seminars in this country (and also [...]
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11. June 2010
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