Marikana: The Architects of R12,500
The now infamous demand for a wage of R12,500, which striking mineworkers were died for in Marikana, was not initially something which was demanded, nor were its creators uncompromising or violent as...
View ArticlePatriarchy, Violence & the Judiciary
by Luvo Nelani and Tim Fish Hodgson The reference list protests at the University currently known as Rhodes University, the rape of a protesting student by a private security guard at the University...
View ArticleViolence at Wits
-By Wits Independent Monitors Events at Wits on October 4 showed that the University’s decision to force a reopening of the academic programme under intense policing and private security was...
View ArticleHamba Kahle PC
by Ebrahim Harvey Obituary: Phiroshaw Camay (1947 – 2016) Phiroshaw Camay, who very sadly passed away last week, was probably my closest friend and comrade for over three decades. “PC”, as he was...
View ArticleRemembering Khwezi
by Louise Colvin “Khwezi” leaves a legacy like few others. She remains a symbol of courage — the courage to speak truth to power — and of hope and resilience for all women who continue to suffer...
View ArticleThe Policing of Black Hair in Our Schools: Policy or Prejudice?
-by Bhavna Ramji and Tim Fish Hodgson In August 2016, Black learners at Pretoria High School for Girls organised a protest against school authorities preventing them from wearing their hair in Afros....
View ArticleBlack Wednesday: A Prison Diary
— by Terrence Tryon On 19 October 1977 the apartheid government banned 18 organisations, including: Black People’s Convention South African Students Movement Union of Black Journalists Black Women’s...
View ArticleUWC: Our Parents Are Shooting At Us
-By Lucy Valerie Graham “Our parents are shooting at us!” — The situation at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) UWC students believe no one cares about them. Almost nothing about their severe...
View ArticleWits Students’ Accounts Reveal Management Smoke-screen
By Wits Observers The escalation of ongoing conflict between police and students protesting for free, decolonised, quality education at the University of the Witwatersrand is now exposing those...
View ArticleSilicosis Case: Thousands of Women Could Lose Out
By Tanya Charles n the pending lawsuit against South Africa’s entire gold mining industry, thousands of women stand to lose out on the compensation due to the dependants of deceased miners because...
View ArticleZama Zamas: Women of Stone
By Zaheera Jinnah and Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon Grinding rock, on the discarded mines of Johannesburg’s peripheries, is women’s work. The hammering of stone and its crushing into fine silt recalls the...
View ArticleHate in the Heart of Sea Point
– Lucy Valerie Graham Last week, Sea Point’s Democratic Alliance (DA) ward councillor, Shayne Ramsay, was widely criticised for making racist, anti-poor remarks regarding homeless people in Sea...
View ArticleThe Meaning of John Berger
John Berger, who died on January 2, turned 90 in November last year. A Jar of Wild Flowers (Zed Books), a collection of essays written by his friends and artistic collaborators in celebration of...
View ArticleThe Debasement of Politics in South Africa
Michael Neocosmos There is a general debasement of politics in much of the world. Figures such as Trump in the US, Modi in India, Dos Santos in Angola and Erdogan in Turkey (not forgetting...
View ArticleA Deadening Democracy: From Polokwane to #Sona2017
The events inside and around parliament on February 9 — the violent ejecting of opposition Economic Freedom Fighters from the legislature, the pepper-spraying of guests in the public gallery, the...
View ArticleI Am Your Boyfriend’s Lover
by Anonymous I remember the day I lost, and she won. It was always going to be that way: a titanic, dirty, silent fight between me and her, and there could only be one victor. She knew, even though...
View ArticleThose Ones Who Owned the Mines, I Hate Them, I Hate Them Very Much
Excerpt from: Broke and Broken: The Shameful Legacy of Gold Mining in South Africa by Lucas Ledwaba and Leon Sadiki (Jacana) Zwelendaba Mgidi was 23 years old when he left his home village of...
View ArticleXenophobic Violence Reveals a Crisis in Policing and Leadership
by Zaheera Jinnah and Alexandra Hiropoulos The ongoing unrest and violence in South Africa’s urban areas and townships emphasises, once again, the breakdown in the rule of law. As has often been the...
View ArticleHere we go again…
By James Oatway “Here we go again.” That dreaded phrase… It’s Monday night and I’m in Jeppestown. I’m standing in a street surrounded by filth, staring at “Wolhuter Native Men’s Hostel”. I’m watching...
View ArticleAhmed Kathrada on Zuma: “Step Down With Immediate Effect”
As South Africa braces itself for life without another icon of its liberation struggle, Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada, who died this morning, there was no starker reminder of our corrupted democracy than...
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