In the belly of South Africa’s alcohol beast
The country has always had a drinking problem, but the pandemic-prompted alcohol bans – and their aftermath – have lifted the veil on just how dysfunctional we are.
Features
Domestic workers devastated by mass job cuts
By the end of June, more than 250 000 domestic workers had lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa. Some of them share their stories.
From the Archive | Unions and the dictatorship
Communist theorist Antonio Gramsci sets out how revolutionary class struggle by socialist parties can overturn the oppressive systems unions fight when striking for better conditions.
Part two | Patric Tariq Mellet on culture and identity
The Lie of 1652 is a decolonised history of land in South Africa. This is part two of a Q&A with the author, in which he speaks about cultural genocide and identity in the country.
New Books | Women in Solitary
Shanthini Naidoo tells the story of jailed activists and those around them – how each person coped with the brutality of detention and exile to find their own versions of freedom.
Long Read | Freedom’s footprints: Freire and beyond
Ideas of freedom were in the air and mass strikes on the ground. Durban in 1973 saw the dream of freedom turning towards a strategy to realise democratic socialism.
Cartoon | Handmaid to order
In this week’s cartoon, Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed as a US Supreme Court justice – and, by the look of things, an agent for regressive patriarchy in American jurisprudence.
The survivor’s guilt of a Zimbabwean in the US
Jordan Mubako shares his anguish at living a comfortable life as a student in the United States while his countrymen and women face daily challenges, from hunger to hyperinflation.
Sunetra Gupta and the Covid-19 culture war
Oxford epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta has challenged second-wave Covid-19 lockdowns from a humanitarian position. But her argument has become entangled in a libertarian lobbying campaign.
New Books | The Misery Merchants
Investigative journalist Ruth Hopkins delves into the heart of a private prison in Mangaung, where whistleblowers tell of tortured inmates and gangs paying off warders.
The natural resource curse in Cabo Delgado
A humanitarian crisis looms as a violent insurgency continues to sweep over northern Mozambique. As many flee to safety, the question remains: who, or what, fuels the fire?
Cartoon | The wool of the people
In this week’s cartoon, the people of Bolivia restore socialist rule less than a year after the toppling of former president Evo Morales by a right-wing coalition.
Book Review | So, For the Record
Anton Harber’s new book is an excoriating examination of the manipulation and collapse of the integrity of the Sunday Times newspaper during the later Jacob Zuma years.
Part one | Patric Tariq Mellet on slave towns
The Lie of 1652 is a richly textured book that calls for restorative memory and justice, and provides a decolonised history of land and identity in South Africa. This is part one of a Q&A with the author.
Factions in SA’s churches are an old problem
The split in the International Pentecostal Holiness Church follows a pattern that has long shaped the flowering of Christian churches in Southern Africa and beyond.
Another child killed by callous police action
Video footage shows that members of the Western Cape police’s public order unit fired blithely at the homes of protesters in Laingville, resulting in the death of nine-year-old Leo Williams.
Enlarging the lives of Khayelitsha’s children
A community-based and volunteer-run after-school programme in Khayelitsha is supporting working parents by providing a safe space for their children to do their homework and have fun.
From the Archive | On revolutionary medicine
Revolutionary physician Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, who died this month 53 years ago, speaks about what healthcare looks like for a liberated people.
Bonteheuwel community centre spat lands up in court
The community action network in Bonteheuwel has taken the DA ward councillor to court over who has the right to use the local multipurpose centre.
Soil and land in the Philippi Horticultural Area
The struggle to preserve this resource for residents of the Cape Flats to farm and feed themselves is about protecting it from development and nurturing the richness it offers.
Book Review | A hopeful history for humankind
Despite a heating planet and several countries hurtling towards fascism, Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s new book notes a cause for optimism: the goodness inherent in humanity.