History Matters

Angie Motshekga  the head of the womens league in her interview in the Sunday Times underlines the point that many have been making that some members of the ANC leadership are if not intellectual bankrupt but their views on the role of opposition parties in a democracy could be mistaken for that of a rantings [...]

How is it that the ANC – the same ANC which prides itself on discipline, the same ANC who fought for the right to protest freely – allows its supporters to run to ruin the name of the party? IOL reports on the recent disruptions at a rally organised in support of Lekota at Orange [...]

ANC veteran and stalwart Billy Nair passed away this morning in Durban, after being admitted to hospital last Thursday in a critical condition. SAHO and History Matters salutes Billy Nair for his years of service and dedication to democracy in South Africa. Please feel free to use this space to write tributes or condolence messages [...]

Comrade President what is becoming of the once proud ANC.? What is happening in the ANC in which you spent the best part of your life, in prison, exile and government? It seems that you are presiding over an army of politically illiterates. We have a leader and member of your NEC and head of the [...]

By Rapule Tabane (Mail&Guardian) Imagine the ANC losing 10% of the 10-million South Africans who voted for it in the last national and local government elections in 2004 and 2006. Is that a pipe dream or a realistic possibility? It will not happen for as long as the ruling party has to compete only against [...]

By Mandy Rossouw (Mail&Guardian) Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille is to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu to discuss his stated intention not to vote in next year’s elections. Writing in her weekly newsletter on the DA website, Zille said Tutu had agreed to meet her to discuss the comments he made to the Sunday Times [...]

If you were taken aback by Sunday’s news headlines of ‘Tutu won’t vote’ then please read the transcript of the full interview here. Newspapers thrive on sensationalism and enjoy cutting out half the story so that you can buy their paper to read the rest, so read the full interview here: tutu-transcript

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 By Patrick Laurence A speech by Nobel Peace prize laureate Desmond Tutu at the University of Stellenbosch last week invokes thoughts of the birth and death, and the rise and fall, of political parties. In his speech, delivered in memory of Beyers Naude, the Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist, Tutu reflected [...]

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason. – T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral By Zubeida Jaffer* The rifts run deep. Half of Thabo Mbeki’s cabinet have chosen to follow him out of the door leaving the country in a [...]