By RICHARD PITHOUSE At a public discussion on the land question in Johannesburg on Friday, February 27, Dikgang Moseneke, the Deputy Chief Judge of the Constitutional Court, began his remarks with a well-known quote from Frantz Fanon: For a colonized people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land:…
By BUSISO MOYO Everyone seems to have an interest in food policy these days, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with its Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, to the G8 with its New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, to social movements, civil society networks and those who simply care about what…
By ALEXANDER O’RIORDAN What happened in the South African Parliament last week was a carefully engineered spectacle of power Last week’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) and the subsequent fallout is being voraciously dissected in the press. Most of the analysis, however, is on what the media presumes are unintended consequences of President Jacob…
Nothing Changes Until Something Big Happens By SALIEM FAKIR Last week the Mining Indaba came and went just like it does every year. Some 7,000 people attended. On its margins, outside of the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), a different kind of mining indaba, a people’s indaba, took place in close by Woodstock. This…
By ANNA MAJAVU The Tripartite Alliance’s support of the BDS Movement is weakened by the ruling party’s confusing stance on Israel/Palestine Amongst the audience in Parliament’s public gallery for President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) was a Palestinian freedom icon who carried with her the hopes of all Palestinians that the ANC…
By PENNY SWIFT President Barack Obama has been labeled “a President in denial” after stating in a recorded interview (watch below) that the media overstates terror threats. In addition, an Israeli Government Minister has accused the President of ignoring the reality of Islamist terrorism. In stark contrast, the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and…
Many schools in the state still have no policies or rules around pinning kids down This story by Heather Vogell, written for ProPublica, unearths some of the barbaric practices that are being used today in a country that is supposedly the leader of the free world. The State of Virginia is at least making a move…
By JANE DUNCAN Terrorism In the wake of the recent attacks in Sydney, Paris and Baga, it’s a word that’s been on many people’s lips. After the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, some have argued vehemently against trying to explain the context in which terrorism arises as an attempt to be ‘soft’ on terrorism. Terrorism…
The human cost of intolerance towards African immigrants and refugees is too high By MANDISI MAJAVU Three months after the South African government announced that it was planning to introduce a controversial stringent application process for refugees seeking asylum in the country, foreign-owned shops are being looted in Soweto and foreign nationals are being subjected…
Now that Greece has the political endorsement to do so, it can quite legitimately threaten the EU with an intentional default. By ALEXANDER O’RIORDAN, Brussels This week in the Greek elections, Greece elected into power the left-wing political party, Syriza, headed by Alexis Tsipras, who led the party to victory on an anti-austerity ticket, thus rattling…
