It is not the reality of Comrade Squire’s passing that unsettles us most. It is the lens through which we must now make sense of life without him.A man larger than life, anchored by one of the most stable and rare internal loci of control, has left us. Death, in [...]
As South Africa prepares for the local government elections, few, if any, questions about the bureaucracy supporting the politics of the local state loom large. It is not only a country's elected officials who make it competitive and capable, but also the technical capacity and capabilities of its appointed officials [...]
It is increasingly difficult to sustain the belief that the 1994–1996 democratic breakthrough and political settlement ushered in a truly post-race constitutional order as a vehicle for social and economic justice. What it has also enabled is something more complex: the capacity for individuals, institutions, and communities to weaponise the [...]
(Originally written on 30 April 2009; language edited for this 2026 posting)Did the Jacob Zuma ANC victory expose a dearth of rational discourse in our democracy, or did it reignite it?Rational debates are expected to assume scientifically justifiable objectivity, particularly in the often muddy terrain of political theatre. The role [...]
Beyond the recklessness of scholar transport drivers, the unregulated nature of the booming scholar transport industry, and the general road safety challenges in South Africa, the deaths of schoolchildren in the Vaal point to a deeper local government issue: spatial injustice.The real problems are not surfacing for decisive policy action [...]
The African National Congress (ANC), arguably the nexus of political life in South Africa, is under increasing pressure from history to undertake one of its most consequential internal reviews since its formation. Throughout its existence, it has carried the burden of leading society amid competing interests. What is becoming evident [...]
In 1912, on this day, a group of Black Middle-Class men convened to establish what would become Africa’s most influential liberation movement, the ANC, laying the foundation for a movement rooted in African nationalism and democracy. The intellectual prowess concentrated in Mangaung crafted a vision whose reach remains elusive to [...]
The succession contest to lead the ANC after Ramaphosa is more about leveraging the advantage of such a victory than securing the country’s presidency, which is the ultimate goal in South African politics. Since the 2016 Local Government elections, when the urban vote began showing signs of a possible coalition [...]
To understand the season of a Paul Mashatile-generation ANC presidency, essentially an act of post-liberation alchemy, we must first understand the world that summoned this generation into existence. At its birth, this generation was born to parents at the crucible of human change. They are the babies who boomed for [...]
The trigger event for the ultimate colonisation of Southern Africa is, among other factors, the global trade demands driven by the pursuit of better trade routes to the East. The Dutch East India Company (VOC), one of the earliest multinational corporations involved in global trade, established a refreshment station at [...]
