To come back from Qunu

I do not have a background in the struggle. Unlike the many people who over the past week

Boos of a disenchanted black middle class

BEFORE we go any further, let us be clear about the booing of Jacob Zuma.

Parliament Diary: SONA draws near, Speaker pretends not to hear

For many South Africans, the response by now to the endless State of the Nation Address predictions

Unless freedom is for everyone, it is not freedom

WHEN principles are applied to some but not others, they become prejudices — which is why some who claim to fight

SONA: Shame of the Nation 2015

Protesters allegedly set upon with water cannons. Two senior DA figures arrested.

Living out our differences-Reflections on Mandela

In a wide-ranging interview before his death a year ago, Jakes Gerwel-academic, vice-chancellor and chief aide to Nelson Mandela

Mpati: Thorny road to top

Judge Lex Mpati relates the story of the sometimes thorny journey he has travelled in his life, until he finally made his mark as one of the?country’s foremost legal minds.

Small towns cherish Madiba’s glow

Not everyone could go to Houghton, Soweto or Pretoria, or to the official events to pay their

The youth can take a leaf out of the book of a man in touch with his masculinity

The youth can take a leaf out of the book of a man in touch with his masculinity

Cape Town’s Mandela Memorial: The tribute Madiba deserved

With Johannesburg’s official memorial for Mandela at FNB Stadium marred by issues ranging

Nelson Mandela: The Crossing

[D]eath is always close by, and what's important is not to know if you can avoid it, but to know that you have done the most possible to realize your ideas. - Frantz Fanon, 1961.

Will Mandela's legacy be an ANC election boon?

Nelson Mandela died on a day when SA politics was in its usual ugly, fractured state. Will Madiba's memory help or harm the ANC, asks Verashni Pillay.

Mandela confronted HIV in the end – but today, treatment problems remain

The International Conference on Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections (ICASA), which kicked off in Cape Town on Monday, is one of many important events which will not receive the media attention it would have warranted at any other time due to the mourning for Nelson Mandela.

Mandela on trial: the ethical core

When Mandela was captured in 1962 the police did not know that he had been overseas for

SA forgotten at Mandela's memorial

On Tuesday, the people in FNB Stadium did not get to say goodbye to Nelson Mandela.

Born free mindset drove Mandela struggle legacy

I WAS not born with a hunger to be free. Nelson Mandela writes in his autobiography.

Meeting my grandfather in Pollsmoor jail

Mandla Mandela tells Zine George about a confusing first encounter that led to a deep relationship Mandla Mandela was 12 years old when he met his grandfather for the first time.

A legacy carried forward

The men in robes and animal skins bore simple wooden staffs as they stepped jovially down the paths in Mvezo.

Mandela: Parliament gives a fitting goodbye

If only Parliament could be more like it was on Monday, every week: alive with members of the

Cape Town: City where Mandela was imprisoned mourns

Nelson Mandela, as many have pointed out, had a complicated relationship with Cape Town.

Don't betray Mandela's legacy, warns Mbeki

Former president Thabo Mbeki spoke firmly on Sunday evening about the importance of strong

Deep Impact: Mandela’s death and SA politics

The death of Nelson Mandela has put our everyday concerns to one side.

Madiba: South Africa’s loss is the world’s loss too

It didn’t take long for the tributes to start pouring in, from all corners of the globe and from every

Confessions of a closet Christian

By all accounts, Mandela was a staunch believer but was aware of how divisive religion can be.

Behind the Icon – Tebello Nyokong: The compassionate scientist

This week, 21 Icons focuses its lens on the 10th icon of its second season: Tebello Nyokong, renowned scientist, chemist and professor at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

Parliament diary: Post-SONA debate has plenty of fire, zero fisticuffs

After a fairly bizarre start to the day – in the form of a press briefing given by Parliament’s presiding officers

Parliament Diary: Day 2 of Post-SONA debate sees loyal cadres bat for Eskom and Prez

The second day of Parliament’s post-SONA debate brought no less than two political apologies, a President laughing less

Whose ‘nation’ is it anyway?

In the maelstrom that is South African politics, some questions are so fundamental that they are simply never asked.

Sona2015 Jamming: Spinning in the name of the state

If Wednesday night’s statement by the Department of State Security regarding the SONA signal jamming prompted incredulity

Ruckus during Zuma’s speech does not mean end is nigh for suburbia

NOT for the first time, those who are most anxious about freedom’s future here probably have the least reason to worry.

Takeover of activism by exiles in ’90s just a myth

THERE is a narrative I have often heard in some former anti-apartheid activist circles about how a high-handed

Democracy deepens when leaders are censured

ONE day, when the hysteria has long died down, we may remember last week as one in which democracy took an important step forward.

Politicians behaving badly: When will leaders walk the talk on respect for women?

On Sunday, it was reported that an ANC politician who chairs the National Council of Provinces committee

IS IT really worth paying up to R100,000 a year to get an undergraduate degree from one of SA’s top universities?

IS IT really worth paying up to R100,000 a year to get an undergraduate degree from one of SA’s top universities?

To fight racism, we must admit it exists

WE CANNOT fight racism until we admit it exists. If our leading English-speaking universities

“Erase Rhodes? That offends me as a teacher”. This was the title of an article penned by Vice Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen, for the Rand Daily Mail.

“Erase Rhodes? That offends me as a teacher”. This was the title of an article penned by Vice Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen, for the Rand Daily Mail. He was, of course, responding to the #RhodesMustFall movement sweeping university campuses all over South Africa.

“Erase Rhodes? That offends me as a teacher”. This was the title of an article penned by Vice Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen, for the Rand Daily Mail.

“Erase Rhodes? That offends me as a teacher”. This was the title of an article penned by Vice Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen, for the Rand Daily Mail. He was, of course, responding to the #RhodesMustFall movement sweeping university campuses all over South Africa.

TODAY’s headlines offer new evidence, if we care to look, that our obsessions prevent us understanding our problems.

TODAY’s headlines offer new evidence, if we care to look, that our obsessions prevent us understanding our problems.

Does a member of Parliament count as a ‘person’?

Does a member of Parliament count as a ‘person’? This may sound like the first half of an insulting riddle, but its legal resolution is critical to deciding whether it is permissible for police to be deployed in the National Assembly.

Anger over Rhodes vindicates Mamdani

IN 1998 eminent Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani put forward the following challenge to his colleagues at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

EFF land occupations: ‘Rondebosch and Camps Bay are next’

On Monday, the Western Cape branch of the Economic Freedom Fighters assisted a group of people in occupying a plot of land in Khayelitsha.

JSC Day 3: Why does government prefer representation by white male lawyers?

This week’s Judicial Service Commission interviews have concluded with the recommendation of two senior counsel to serve as judges on the Eastern Cape bench.

Mandela masculinity a model amid violence.

THE main biographies of Nelson Mandela do not consider him as a gendered subject.

Tenacious belief in the ideal of the university

WHEN the 2008 financial crash happened, Queen Elizabeth apparently wrote a letter to the UK’s top economists to ask them why they had not foreseen it.

Diary of a fieldworker in Liberia: ‘No touch’ and other stories

On 9 May, Liberia was officially declared Ebola-free. It was a long, hard road to get to this point – and a nervy 42-day wait without new patients before the declaration could be made.

Chaos, imposed: The consequences of disorder in the NPA

On Monday, senior advocate Nazeer Cassim opened the inquiry into the fitness for office of National Director of Public Prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana.

To be young, privileged and black (in a world of white hegemony)

Today is March 19. Tension fills the Rhodes University campus in the small South African university town of Grahamstown.

Ethics of poetic ethnicities

How I wish I could, like many, pretend that the ethics of poetry are engraved on a rock somewhere at the centre of the global village — an assumption that downplays the fact that one’s domicile, environment and experience directly informs his literary outlook.

After school learning makes kids masters of their own maths destiny.

When you walk into a maths class at a South African school, don’t be surprised if the pupils are chanting.

For older women, exercise buddies make all the difference

Older women are more likely to take up exercising and stick to it if they are part of a small group guided by a personal trainer.

May 25 is Africa Day

It has been most heartening to wake up during this month of May to the sounds of the African Union anthem.

OPINION: When feminism becomes trendy

It hit me when I saw models sashaying down a runway, placards in hand, bearing slogans like ‘History is Herstory’ and ‘Freedom’.

OPINION: The relative value of South African life

Rebecca Davis compares the deaths of Jayde Panayiotou, Fatima Patel and Trevor Noah’s ‘cousin’.

Death in The Diaspora

Vimbai Midzi, a Rhodes University graduate, discusses death and the costs involved with the repatriation of the bodies of foreign nationals to their countries of origin.

Self-respect: the hidden costs of Nkandla

“There was something that started to worry me - there were searches … Then when you are a child you always think your father is very powerful, but when you see your father being harassed one day by other men you see that there is something wrong. You see that you miscalculated. Then you realise that, no, my father, there is other power that is beyond him - because when these police come at night they’re forcing, they kick the door - he doesn’t fight … So that was the worst humiliation that I experienced in my life when I grew up.” – The ANC Underground, Raymond Suttner

Let’s focus on a caring approach to pedagogy

Rhodes University History lecturer, Nomalanga Mkhize, discusses the shortcomings of early childhood education in the South African context.

What type of leadership do we need to reinforce democracy and build an emancipatory project?

If many of us are critical of the current political leadership in South Africa what type of leadership do we wish to see? Obviously the type of leader one wants is conditioned by the organisation one speaks of or needs to build and one’s political outlook. And that is linked to what one would like to see in South Africa, the type of country one would like it to be, how it ought to be governed.

Why Is Africa So Anti-Gay?

Of the 76 countries that still criminalise same-sex relationships and behaviour, 38 are African. Recent surveys also show that the overwhelming majority of people who live in Africa strongly disapprove of homosexuality.

Bashir exposes hypocrisy of Africanists

Our leaders inflict more damage on their own people than either the West or the ICC can possibly achieve, writes Malaika wa Azania.

Racial terror from Columbus to Charleston

Since the 1920s, Charleston has been the name of a dance, a dance with roots in Africa, made white and famous on Broadway.

Black social capital should not be wasted

IT IS a fairly common complaint in my circle of young black professionals that we do not have the kind of networks and social capital that our white counterparts have to help them get ahead.

The sickness of xenophobia, and the need for a politics of healing

The never-ending saga of xenophobic violence has again engulfed South Africa. Again the same platitudes are repeated by commentators

Citizen editor’s apology exposes lie of self-regulation

The recent confession of The Citizen editor Steven Motale proves the ‘noble lie’ of print media self-regulation has failed. He tells us he led a deliberate onslaught against then deputy president and now President Jacob Zuma using The Citizen as his weapon.

African literature needs more mavericks

I HAVE spent about four years experimenting in writing and publishing in African languages