History Matters

MARK GEVISSER – Dec 23 2008 Published in the Mail and Guardian “You common cry of curs … I banish you! And here remain with your uncertainty …. There is a world elsewhere!” With these words, Shakespeare’s Coriolanus storms out of Rome, after having been exiled by the tribunes of the people. The play of [...]

Study Cites Toll of AIDS Policy in South Africa Download the Harvard study ‘Estimating the Lost Benefits of Antiretroviral Drug Use in South Africa’ here.

The brutal ousting of South African President Thabo Mbeki by the 88-member national executive committee of the ruling African National Congress has unleashed political and economic turmoil, but it has also finally forced open the space to focus on how to bring fresh ideas, imagination and leadership to bear to renew a faltering democracy, mend [...]

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ZACKIE ACHMAT: COMMENT – Published in the M&G Sep 27 2008 00:00 On September 20 2008, as South Africa’s newly acquired Gripen fighter jets took off from a local air show to parade across Cape Town skies, residents would awaken to one of the most remarkable days in the [...]

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 [...]

Friends of Democracy or is it friends of Thabo Mbeki see for your self, visit http://www.friendsofdemocracy.co.za/. What ever way one views this site it is clear that Thabo Mbeki is not dead. The divisions in the ANC are there and are not going to go away. The rumblings about a break away party are there [...]

September 24, 2008. Dear Colleagues, To all Members of the National Executive. As you know, tomorrow, September 25, the National Assembly will elect the next President of the Republic of South Africa, who will also swear his or her Oath of Office on the same day. By law, I will therefore cease to be President [...]

the Constitution determines that a new President must be chosen within 30 days from among the members of the National Assembly, according to the blog Constitutionally Speaking. In the meantime the Deputy President will act as President. Or if she also resigns, a Minister designated by the other members of the Cabinet will act as [...]

President Mbeki made a dignified resignation speech. He used the opportunity to spell out the points of his Presidency for which he wishes to be remembered, and to differ with the opinion expressed by Judge Chris Nicholson in the judgment of 12 September 2008. This judgment gave the Jacob Zuma faction the reason it had [...]