South Africa
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Leader of shack-dwellers’ movement arrested by South African police for ‘conspiracy’ to murder
George Mqapheli Bonono, the deputy president of Abahlali baseMjondolo, was arrested on May 4. The movement maintains that it is a politically motivated attempt by the police to discredit the organization at the behest of the ruling ANC Continue reading
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EXPLAINER: What does the new policing bill say about restricting protests?
Since the confrontational crackdown by the Metropolitan Police on women holding a vigil for Sarah Everard at Clapham Common on 13 March, a growing movement has condemned police intolerance to the right to protest and warned this will only become worse with the passing of the government’s 307 page Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.… Continue reading
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Massive general strike in South Africa highlights demand for radical policy changes
25 February 2021 — Peoples Dispatch Millions of workers took part in the general strike on February 24, according to the South African Federation of Trade Unions which called for the labor action. Demonstrations were held in a number of cities by Pavan Kulkarni Continue reading
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South African movement adopts Climate Justice Charter
“As Africans, we live together on a vast and beautiful continent where the human story began. All of us are linked to the first human who walked upright, dreamed, thought and co-existed with plants, animals, rivers, oceans and forests. Today this common humanity and its future is in serious danger. South Africa cannot ignore this… Continue reading
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Tell the People That the Struggle Must Go On: The Thirty-Fourth Newsletter (2020)
Young children marvel at an obvious contradiction in capitalist societies: why do we have shops filled with food, and yet see hungry people on the streets? It is a question of enormous significance; but in time the question dissipates into the fog of moral ambivalence, as various explanations are used to obfuscate the clarity of… Continue reading
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Watch: SHAYA! Amapiano Documentary (FULL)
SHAYA! is Documentary about Amapiano music, lifestyle and culture in South Africa. The inside story about the culture and how certain things became the way they are. This 26 minute documentary features: Kabza De Small, MFR Souls,Tall Arse Tee, DJ Jaivane, JazziDisciples, Papers 707, Dimpie Dimpopo, Mbali Sibeko, Dinho Cafe, Kwiish SA, Pencil, Stokie and… Continue reading
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‘The Politic of Blood’: Political Repression in South Africa
In his famous speech from the dock in April 1964, Nelson Mandela spoke of ‘revolutionary democracy’ rooted in precolonial forms of collective deliberation and decision making. In a speech given in April 1982, Joe Foster, then General Secretary of the Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fosatu), stressed the need for workers ‘to build their… Continue reading
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EXCLUSIVE: OR Tambo’s forgotten speech at Chatham House in 1985
Oliver Reginald Tambo On October 29 1985, Oliver Tambo gave a speech at Chatham House in London. In it, he urged a reluctant British government to support the fight against apartheid — and expertly dissects the hypocrisy in not doing so. For decades, the speech was buried in the Chatham House archives. For its centennial… Continue reading
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George Hallett, photographer 1942 – 2020
1 July 2020 —The New Dark Age George Hallet, one of a group of immensely talented (and, I might add, brave) South African photographers who documented Apartheid, and post-Apartheid South Africa, died today after a long illness. In 2012 George came to London for a brief stayover, on his way to somewhere else and we Continue reading
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Lockdown: Violence, hunger and indifference
As we mark the anniversary of the June 16 1976 uprising, many young people are experiencing hunger and there is widespread violence emanating from security forces. While it is understandable that many problems of the “state of disaster” could not be anticipated, there is an element of indifference that is cause for disquiet. Continue reading
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Covid-19 attacks the down-and-out in ultra-unequal South Africa
It’s hard to imagine a more worrying place to watch Covid-19 hit a society than Johannesburg, South Africa. This is, after all, the world’s most unequal major city, serving as economic headquarters for the most unequal country. In spite of a poverty rate (at $2.80/day) of more than 60 percent and a national unemployment rate… Continue reading
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The Fate of Xolobeni Would Be the Fate Of Us All
Since 1996, activists in Xolobeni, a coastal region in South Africa, have been fighting a foreign mining conglomerate that learned that their ancestral lands happen to be rich in titanium. The anti-mining activists of Xolobeni, who have lost many comrades to hit squads, continue to struggle against this foreign company and its partners in the… Continue reading
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Resounding “No” to Monsanto’s “Bogus” GM Drought-tolerant Maize
After more than 10 years of battling Monsanto’s “bogus” drought tolerant maize project, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has welcomed the decision by the Minister of Agriculture, Ms Thoko Didiza, upholding the decision by the Executive Council: GMO Act and the appeal board to reject Monsanto’s application for the commercial cultivation of its triple-stacked… Continue reading
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Trump’s Vision for Africa? The 1960s By Wayne Madsen
Although Donald Trump can barely place a single country in Africa, his few utterances on the continent have yielded what can only be described as a nostalgia for the 1960s. It was a decade that saw three white minority-ruled governments ruling in South Africa, Rhodesia, and the South African territory of South-West Africa. All three… Continue reading
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Rainbows, dreams & ethical journalism By Terry Bell
29 June 2019 — Terry Bell Writes South Africa seems to be obsessed with rainbow images. First there was that grand illusion of a rainbow nation, now faded. But it did, for some time, obscure, to a degree, rotten reality. Now, with the latest State of the Nation (SONA) address we have what seemed to Continue reading
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South Africa: A new dawn — or an impending storm By Terry Bell
Minimum wage legislation, introduced on January 1, was supposed to herald the first pale rays of a promised new dawn. This promise would be consolidated once the ANC again held the reins of national power with Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa in the top job. Continue reading
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Death of South Africa’s Lonmin Mining House. “Murder by Money” By Prof. Patrick Bond
The death of the 110-year old mining house Lonmin at a London shareholders meeting on May 28 occurred not through bankruptcy or nationalisation, as would have been logical at various points in time. It was the result of a takeover – generally understood as a rip-off of investors and workers – by an extremely jejune… Continue reading
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SA — still awaiting a workers’ party By Terry Bell
One interesting result of South Africa’s May 8 national and provincial poll was the effective demolition of an enduring myth, beloved of many bosses and union-bashing free marketeers: that union bosses call the shots and members blindly follow. This is a claim trotted out at the time of almost every major strike. Continue reading
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Ronnie Kasrils on South African Election
The best aspect of South Africa’s sixth national election since democracy in 1994 was that it was extremely peaceful, virtually incident free, fair, and credible. The top marks go to the 16 million who cast their votes, many in difficult rural terrain and some in cold, rainy conditions. The downside was that this was the… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 