Category: South Africa

This is how to do it: A new land occupation in Germiston, South Africa

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16 May 2018 — Pambazuka News

Photo Credit: baseMjondolo

By Nomnikelo Sigenu and Siyambusa Mpolase

On 11 May 2018, more than two hundred people occupied unused land in Germiston, on the East Rand in Gauteng, South Africa. We laid out our design for the occupation in the afternoon, built throughout the night and slept on the occupied land. Around 350 stands have been marked out via a democratic and carefully planned process. The new occupation has been named the Zikode Extension in honour of S’bu Zikode.

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Cyril Ramaphosa relaunches neo-liberalism By Prof. Patrick Bond

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23 February 2018 — Pambazuka News

After Jacob Zuma’s firing, South Africa risks budget austerity and even renewed BRICS “poisoning”. 

Cyril Ramaphosa’s soft-coup firing of Jacob Zuma from the South African presidency on 14 February 2018, after nearly nine years in power and a bitter struggle to avoid resignation, has contradictory local and geopolitical implications. Amidst general applause at seeing Zuma’s rear end in the society, immediately concerns arise about the new president’s neo-liberal, pro-corporate tendencies, and indeed his legacy of financial corruption and class war against workers given the lack of closure on the 2012 Marikana Massacre.

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Remembering Bra Hugh Masekela

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26 January 2018 — Jazz on the Tube

Hugh Masekela (April 4, 1939 – January 23, 2018)

Hugh Masekela “Grazing In The Grass” live at the Kuumbwa, March 24th, 2014

I had the pleasure, and the honour of hanging out with Bra Hugh on a number of occasions when I lived Johannesburg as well as here in London when he visited here. A modest and honest human being, who was the same offstage as we was on, and who dedicated his life, not only to the wonderful music of South Africa but to the struggle to free its people from the evil of Apartheid.

As they say  in SA, Hamba Kahle Bra Hugh, you are forever in our memory Continue reading →

South Africa’s ANC’s “Internal Presidential Elections”: Ramaphosa Rises as Lonmin Expires By Prof. Patrick Bond

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20 December 2017

Workers, Women and Communities Prepare to Fight, Not Mourn

Monday night’s internal African National Congress (ANC) presidential election of Cyril Ramaphosa – with a razor-thin 51% majority of nearly 4800 delegates – displaced but did not resolve a fight between two bitterly-opposed factions. On the one hand are powerful elements friendly to so-called “White Monopoly Capital,” and on the other are outgoing ANC president Jacob Zuma’s allies led by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, his ex-wife and former African Union chairperson. The latter faction includes corrupt state “tenderpreneur” syndicates, especially the notorious Gupta brothers, and is hence typically nicknamed “Zupta.” (Zuma is still scheduled to serve as national president until mid-2019.)

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Marikana Massacre Hangs Over South Africa's New Extremely Rich ANC Leader

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19 December 2017 — TRNN

After a tight race that exposed stark divisions within the party, the African National Congress elected Cyril Ramaphosa, an anti-apartheid crusader, business tycoon, and key suspect in the 2012 Marikana Massacre is positioned to be the country’s next president. But will he root out corruption, or is he part of the problem? (inc. transcript) Continue reading →