Murder most foul
Political killings have become an all too common tool of control in South Africa. It is essential that this grim reality is recognised and opposed.
Editorial
Another assassination in Durban
As political killings continue in the city, claiming the lives of activists exposing ANC rot and failures, serious questions need to be asked of our democratic commitments.
Marking Workers’ Day in dispiriting times
Previously, millions of people were mobilised in the hope of a better future on May Day. Now, amid mass unemployment and the collapse of an emancipatory vision, that optimism is absent.
Rebuilding Durban will require the state and society
The ANC’s repeated failures to manage public money with integrity and social purpose are not the only cause for concern as relief efforts get under way in Durban.
Devastation in Durban
The floods that have wreaked havoc in the shacklands of Durban are another searing indictment of the social abandonment of the majority by a predatory political elite.
The imperative of political hope
The widening separation between the nationalist imagination and emancipatory hopes is turning the former into an alibi for increasingly dangerous forms of reactionary politics.
Fascism spoken softly does not soften its blows
As xenophobic mobilisation escalates, democracy appears increasingly fragile. A new vision of emancipation rooted in a politics of solidarity is needed now more than ever.
SA football will die if things don’t change
Some tough decisions need to be made if football is to thrive as an industry in South Africa, starting with putting fans front and centre.
The liberal order never loved us
Powerful actors in the South African public sphere assume that Western domination of the world is something virtuous, something to be uncritically defended. It is a deeply flawed world view.
The slow Marikana
The scale and intensity of the repression against popular dissent in Durban is staggering. If left unchallenged it will, in time, arrive in the suburbs.
The sorrow of war
The invasion of Ukraine must be opposed. But war cannot be effectively opposed by presenting the most dangerous and violent force on the planet as a benevolent guarantor of order.
Clover strike takes on shades of Marikana
Tensions are rising as negotiations fail to progress. In the absence of a national emancipatory vision and amid an escalating social crisis, violence is tightening its hold.
Power to the people
Punishing impoverished and working-class residents for their inability to pay for electricity is unjust and immoral, especially when wealthy debtors have been getting a free ride for years.
An admission of failure, a turn to the Right
The president veered sharply towards a pro-business position in his state of the nation address, moving against the demands of the largest organisations of the working class.
The hard road after Zondo
As we seek to gauge the full significance of the Zondo commission’s second report, a critical question arises: Where do we go from here?
The ugly side of the beautiful game
Football cannot cure all ills. Fans and spectators need to take back control of the narrative around matches and expose those who would manipulate crowds for political and personal gain.
The EFF surrenders a key progressive principle
The party’s reckless descent into xenophobic politics is an alarming development. Building a counter-politics of solidarity is essential.
A predatory elite aims for further licence
When the kleptocrats gun for the Constitution and judiciary, they cynically dress their wholly destructive desire for elite impunity in the language of general emancipation.
CAF must stand up to European bullying
The 2021 Afcon has generated the same old voices expressing the same old reluctance to release their African players for the continental showpiece. The time for tolerating this disdainful treatment is over.
Renewing hope after another bad year
As our social crisis escalates year after year, we are perilously close to an entirely unviable situation. There is a way out, but it can only be built in the realm of the popular.
A plague on both their houses
Neither the kleptocrats nor the liberals offer a viable or a just way forward. But we should not be fooled into thinking they are our only choices.