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apartheid
Magnus Malan and crimes against humanity in Africa
Horace Campbell
2011-07-21, Issue 540
cc UN PhotoWith General Magnus Malan – the main architect of South Africa’s apartheid military – passing away on 18 July (Nelson Mandela's birthday, no less), Horace Campbell reflects on Malan’s central role in the systematised discrimination of apartheid and the system’s troubling legacy.
The last of the anti-apartheid heroes
Elizabeth Barad
2011-07-21, Issue 540
cc Wikipedia On the occasion of Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday, Elizabeth Barad reflects on the lives of anti-apartheid heroes, the late Walter and Albertina Sisulu and Helen Suzman.
Re-examining the meaning of 16 June
Veli Mbele
2011-06-15, Issue 535
cc UN PhotoWith the legacy of South Africa's 1976 student uprising marked on 16 June, Veli Mbele writes that education is an area in which the ANC has failed South Africa's young black people. 'The situation is so dire that it gives credence to the theory that it serves the political interests of the ruling party to keep a huge section of the population uneducated and trapped in poverty and ignorance.'
Who is a non-racial South African?
Vishwas Satgar
2011-04-13, Issue 525
cc M T SVishwas Satgar examines the concept of non-racialism in South Africa, calling for a radical and people-centred non-racial nationalism.
Old, bad habits die hard
Khadija Sharife
2010-12-02, Issue 508
cc WarrenskiAs a new report reveals that global beverage company SABMiller uses no fewer than 65 tax havens including Switzerland and Mauritius, Khadija Sharife takes a closer look at the company’s history in apartheid South Africa.
When loyalty becomes a threat to society
S'bu Zikode
2010-11-18, Issue 505
cc Abahlali'Loyalty to political parties and to those who try to privatise the history of the struggle against apartheid for themselves becomes a very serious threat to the poor in a top-down system of governance,' writes S'bu Zikode, president of South African shackdwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo. 'But loyalty has also been the source of our survival. Loyalty is fundamental to the strength that we build in our families and with our friends, our movements and our communities … Our loyalty should start from the bottom of society, where we are, and not from the politicians at the top of society.'
South Africa in 2010: A history that must happen
Trevor Ngwane
2010-10-28, Issue 502
The social weight of organised, mobilised workers is beginning to consolidate in South Africa. The September public sector strike was a shining example, writes Trevor Ngwane.
Ronald W. Walters: A fighter against global apartheid
1938-2010
Horace Campbell
2010-09-23, Issue 497
cc CliffRonald W. Walters, academic, activist and dedicated Pan-Africanist, died on 10 September 2010. Horace Campbell remembers the man who helped build the global Pan-African movement and mobilised generations of black Americans against racism.
Landmark ruling allows apartheid victims to sue multinationals
Khadija Sharife
2009-07-16, Issue 442
cc T SlyIn one of the most significant legal rulings in the post-apartheid history of South Africa, victims of apartheid have finally received the green light from a US judge to sue multinational corporations that knowingly aided and abetted the regime. The implications of this ruling are colossal, writes Khadija Sharife, not only for Africa but for the world at large.
Achieving fair growth in South Africa
Mphutlane wa Bofelo
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc András OsvátDeeply dissatisfied with the South African government's current economic record and policies, Mphutlane wa Bofelo calls on the country's leaders to implement a model of socio-economic redistribution. Rather than pursuing the spending cuts and reduced public sector prescribed by classic neoliberal orthodoxy, the Zuma administration should instead work towards the real and lasting developmental benefits to be found in spreading wealth around, wa Bofelo argues. For if labour and economic disparities simply breed social unrest, wa Bofelo contends, promoting fairer policy will foster social cohesion and people's lasting participation in a genuinely egalitarian society.
Still far from the dream of Biko
Reflections on the 1976 youth uprising
Mphutlane wa Bofelo
2009-06-18, Issue 438
cc FikraImprisoned at 17 as an anti-apartheid activist, Mphutlane wa Bofelo emerged even more determined to confront the system. It was the dream of ‘the freedom of our people’ that people act with boldness and bravery, he writes, even though ‘we knew the ultimate price could be death’. Yet 33 years after the 1976 youth uprising, confronting living conditions in Durban’s Kenville squatter camp, wa Bofelo considers why ‘former freedom fighters can sometimes be more vicious in attempts to abort freedom’. As Kenville residents consider class action against the government for decent housing, wa Bofelo wonders why South Africans should have to go to court to secure constitutionally enshrined basics of water and housing. ‘How can you have a sense of self-respect and dignity when you live in opulence but your brothers and sisters… live in squalor?’ asks wa Bofelo. ‘Pity how it seems we joined the struggle to be rich materially but poor in spirit!’
Remembering Soweto: Harnessing black consciousness
Blackwash
2009-06-18, Issue 438
cc eugene16 June was the anniversary of the 1976 uprising in Soweto, South Africa. With today's black youth in South Africa finding themselves marginalised in much the same way as those protesting against apartheid policy, Blackwash seeks to commemorate the 1976 uprising and further the development of black consciousness. Inspired by 16 June and the words of Steve Biko, Blackwash encourages young black people in South Africa to take up the struggle to put pressure on the government and create genuine change.
Steve Biko's paradise lost
Andile Mngxitama, Amanda Alexander and Nigel C Gibson
2008-09-10, Issue 395
The following is taken from the introduction to Biko Lives! Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko is edited by Andile Mngxitama, Amanda Alexander and Nigel C Gibson and published by Palgrave Macmillan....
Invoking Mandela: How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Fazila Farouk
2008-07-30, Issue 391
It's just been a few weeks since Nelson Mandela was taken off the United States terrorism watch list. No doubt so that they too could join in the celebrations of this living icon, without the embarrassment of hoisting up a revolutionary....
What Palestine is to me
An interview with Fatima Hassan
Mukoma Wa Ngugi
2008-07-23, Issue 390
Fatima Hassan, is a prominent South African human rights lawyer who was part of a South African Human Rights Delegation that in early July visited the Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. ...
Mandela on my poster
Bill Fletcher, Jr
2008-07-16, Issue 389
It is humbling and unsettling attempting to appraise the significance of an icon, especially at the time of that icon's 90th birthday. Nevertheless, we must honor Nelson Mandela while at the same time situating him in a broader and complicated context....
The Pogroms in South Africa: a crisis in citizenship
Richard Pithouse
2008-07-17, Issue 389
The industrial and mining towns on the Eastern outskirts of Johannesburg are unlovely places. They’re set on flat windswept plains amidst the dumps of sterile sand left over from old mines. In winter the wind bites, the sky is a very pale blue and it seems to be all coal braziers, starved dogs, faded strip malls, gun shops and rusting factories and mine headgear. All that seems new are the police cars and, round the corner from the Harry Gwala shack settlement, a double story facebrick strip club.
Mandela as South Africa's metaphor
Andile Mngxitama
2008-07-16, Issue 389
Mandela is, in some ways the perfect embodiment of post colonial Africa, a continent blessed with so many possibilities but consistently producing so much disappointment. The African dream of liberation has become a long nightmare. As Mandela turns ...
A luta continua!
Ruth Castel-Branco
2008-07-16, Issue 389
February 11th 1990—for me, an unforgettable day. I was 7 years old; he had been in prison for 27 years. Sunday morning was just getting started when the phone rang and after a brief conversation, my mother turned around to inform us that Nelson Mandela had been freed. I can remember wondering if I’d heard right. Nelson Mandela? The Nelson Mandela whose face, adorned with the ANC colors, was glued onto one of our empty kitchen cupboards? The ANC leader who had been in jail for more years that my imagination could grasp?...
The politics of fear and the fear of politics
Michael Neocosmos
2008-06-12, Issue 380
Reflecting on the causes of the recent xenophobic pogroms in the country, it is striking how most commentators have stressed poverty and deprivation as the underlying causes of the events, writes Michael Neocosmos. Yet it requires little effort to see that economic factors, however real, cannot possibly account for why it was those deemed to be non-South Africans who bore the brunt of the vicious attacks. Poverty can be and has historically been the foundation for the whole range of political ideologies, from communism to fascism and anything in between. In actual fact, poverty can only account for the powerlessness, frustration and desperation of the perpetrators, but not for their target. After all why were not Whites or the rich or for that matter White foreigners in South Africa targeted instead? Of course it is a common occurrence that the powerless regularly take out their frustrations on the weakest: women, children, the elderly... and outsiders. Yet this will not suffice as an explanation.
Time Mbeki should step down
William Gumede
2008-06-05, Issue 378
The South African state is imploding in front of our eyes. Although there is not a moment to spare, we can still avoid the coming crash, if we act quickly enough, writes William Gumede. This is a nothing but national emergency, which calls for extraordinary steps. Parliament must be dissolved. Next year’s general election must be brought forward to give government a new mandate. Mbeki must step down as president immediately. The ANC must call a special national conference to make the leadership decision, rather than wait for the provincial conferences to be completed by spring or for a list conference thereafter.
Cuito Cuanavale
A Tribute to Fidel Castro and the African Revolution
Horace Campbell
2008-06-03, Issue 377
In March 2008, the President of the African National Congress of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, led a high level delegation of South African parliamentarians to the site of the victory of the forces of liberation at Cuito Cuanavale in Angola. This visit was linked to the numerous ceremonies in Angola to commemorate the victory Angola, Cuba and the forces of SWAPO and the ANC over the apartheid army. Thousands of youths in Southern Africa do not know what happened at Cuito Cuanavale and the linkage between the decolonization of Southern Africa and this historic battle, writes Horace Campbell.
Xenophobia and the South African working class
Thandokuhle Manzi and Patrick Bond
2008-05-27, Issue 375
To convey the reasons and effects of xenophobia in South Africa and its effect on the working class, Thandokuhle Manzi and Patrick Bond take a microscopic look at Cato Manor Township, one of the sites where the attacks took place.
The space for post liberation politics
Onyekachi Wambu
2008-05-22, Issue 373
Onyekachi Wambu looks at post-liberation South Africa and the contradictions of promise and reality and duly warns that the ANC government might very well be condemning South Africa to repeat Zimbabwe's mistakes.
Stop the xenophobia and hate!
Dale T. McKinley
2008-05-22, Issue 373
The Social Movements Indaba (SMI) – a co-ordinating national body of social movements, civil society and activist organizations – is organizing with its affiliated organizations and immigrant communities to roll back the groundswell of xenophobia.
Condemn the violence!
Abdon Yezi
2008-05-22, Issue 373
Southern African film makers implore Southern Africa "governments, politicians and citizens to rise and send an unequivocal message to South Africa condemning these acts of violence."
South Africa: Mourning unfreedom day
Abahlali baseMjondolo
2008-04-24, Issue 365
Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shackdwellers' movement reminds us in this statement and call to action that the structures of apartheid are still thriving in South Africa. On Sunday it will be Freedom Day again. Once again we will be asked to go into stadiums to be told that we are free.
Mbeki’s AIDS Denial – Grace or Folly? Part I
William Gumede
2008-04-16, Issue 364
In this Pambazuka exclusive look at William Gumede's "Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC", we serialize in five parts Gumede's chapter on Mbeki and the controversies surrounding his AIDS policies. Be sure to look for parts two through five in the upcoming Pambazuka issues.
Media freedom: Lessons from Zimbabwe
Hilary Kundishora
2008-03-13, Issue 356
Hillary Kundishora looks at the state of electronic and print media in Zimbabwe and argues that far from the media being the people's watchdog, it is the propaganda arm of the state machinery. With independent media harassed or banned, the promise of democracy has already been undermined
Truth commissions and prosecutions: Two sides of the same coin?
Joseph Yav Katshung
2008-03-17, Issue 354
Yav Katshung Joseph argues that as truth commissions multiply around the world it is important to look at their relationship to prosecutions and justice in an immediate and historical sense. Are TRCs designed to generate more truth, more justice, reparations, and genuine institutional reform? Or are they designed to the State’s and society’s legal, ethical and political obligations to their people?