Niren Tolsi

@NirenTolsi

Niren Tolsi is a freelance journalist whose interests include social justice, citizen mobilisation and state violence, protest, the Constitution and Constitutional Court, football and Test cricket.

Stories by: Niren Tolsi

• Analysis
JSC lets politics trump conscience and excellence
The sense that the commissioners who nominated five candidates for appointment to the Constitutional Court voted for their constituencies, rather than with their conscience, is difficult to shake off.
By: Niren Tolsi
11 Oct 2021

• Features
‘I don’t feel like a citizen of this country’
The wives and children of the miners murdered in 2012 during a strike at Marikana’s Lonmin mine wait for justice that never comes while languishing in a town with few opportunities.
By: Niren Tolsi
13 Aug 2021

• Features
KwaZulu-Natal races back to 1949
The past week’s violence and looting – and the potential for an orchestrated race war in the province – have evoked haunting scenes from a bitter and bloody history.
By: Niren Tolsi
15 Jul 2021

• Analysis
South Africa spared Jacob Zuma’s wrecking ball
So-called political solutions were offered, some subtle and others cynical and blatant, but the Constitutional Court’s ruling carried the day. This averted a ‘Marikana’ of South Africa’s soul.
By: Niren Tolsi
9 Jul 2021

• Analysis
Court reaffirms the supremacy of SA’s Constitution
In their ruling that Jacob Zuma is guilty of contempt of the Constitutional Court, the justices have honoured the letter and spirit of both the country’s founding document and their institution.
By: Niren Tolsi
1 Jul 2021

• News
Phiyega bid to sidestep Marikana massacre dismissed
Ex-police commissioner Riah Phiyega hoped to quash findings including colluding in a cover-up and misleading the public about what happened at the platinum mine in 2012.
By: Niren Tolsi
18 Jun 2021

• News
Marikana violence was avoidable, Mahikeng court hears
Testimony about the events of 13 August 2012, when five people died at Marikana, has provided new details of the police’s incompetent handling of the striking mineworker situation.
By: Niren Tolsi
28 May 2021

• News
Mill of justice for Marikana dead grinds ever slower
Who ordered tear gas and stun grenades to be fired at striking mineworkers, which led to five dead in a skirmish at Marikana in 2012? Rarely has the SA justice system been more lethargic.
By: Niren Tolsi
21 May 2021

• News
Hope faces off against power in Marikana trial
The family members of mineworkers killed during the Marikana massacre in 2012 have yet to see a police officer held to account, and police testimony thus far appears unclear.
By: Niren Tolsi
14 May 2021

• Culture
Long Read | Ronnie Govender: ‘Unbowed, Unbroken’
The South African activist and man of letters used language as a weapon to defend the marginalised and reflect upon the people, places and culture that defined him.
By: Niren Tolsi
13 May 2021

• Features
Aubrey Mokoape: A revolutionary with a human face
Many activists who were at the forefront of the fight against apartheid are not household names. Mokoape too. Yet, alongside Sobukwe and Biko, he fought. And only death stopped him.
By: Niren Tolsi
5 Feb 2021

• News
A despot’s time to face democracy
Events of the past week have proven that the Zondo commission investigating state capture cannot conclude its work without former president Jacob Zuma’s honest testimony.
By: Niren Tolsi
1 Feb 2021

• Culture
Long Read | Shifting the lens of film festivals
Curators and directors of South African and international film festivals speak about creating platforms for diverse voices while remaining committed to gender equality.
By: Niren Tolsi
26 Jan 2021

• Sport
Long Read | The political life of Diego Maradona
The icon who died on 25 November 2020 was more than just the greatest footballer of all time. From Argentina to Palestine he represented the experiences of the outsider, the oppressed.
By: Niren Tolsi
2 Dec 2020

• Analysis
Zuma maintains his true colours at Zondo commission
The former president’s escapades at the commission of inquiry into state capture are a far cry from Nelson Mandela’s response when summonsed to testify in the high court.
By: Niren Tolsi
23 Nov 2020

• Features
Long Read | George Bizos’ strength of an elephant
With the renowned advocate’s death on 9 September, South Africa has lost a man of immense morality and a tireless campaigner for the downtrodden and the traumatised.
By: Niren Tolsi
11 Sep 2020

• Culture
Dumisa Ntsebeza demonstrates ‘The Art of Being Human’
A film about the human rights lawyer from Cala, free to watch online during the Encounters Documentary Festival, chronicles the deep sense of justice that shaped his life.
By: Niren Tolsi
27 Aug 2020

• Features
Long Read | Paul David stared down political Goliaths
The lawyer, whose sense of justice stayed with him till his death, was an unassuming but essential part of South Africa’s ongoing struggle for equality – and he never forgot his roots.
By: Niren Tolsi
20 Aug 2020

• Sport
Ngidi exposes thinly veiled racism in SA cricket
The reaction to Lungisani Ngidi’s call for CSA to acknowledge that black lives matter was unsurprising. The sport still has racist elements in its midst, including beneficiaries of apartheid.
By: Niren Tolsi
17 Jul 2020

• Culture
The arts delivered in pixels and bytes
The past, present and future collided powerfully at this year’s National Arts Festival, which bore the signature of our times as subjugated voices took centre stage.
By: Niren Tolsi
17 Jul 2020

• Culture
Long Read | Salem: Of the land itself
Near Makhanda is a cricket pitch with claims to being the oldest in the country. Watered by blood and trauma, rolled with frontier nostalgia and contemporary paranoia, how does it play?
By: Niren Tolsi
10 Jul 2020