The undocumented migrant question is not only about borders. It is about state failure, political memory, constitutional democracy, and the forces that profit when South Africans are encouraged to blame the vulnerable rather than confront the powerful. Introduction. South Africa’s debate on undocumented migrants has reached a dangerous stage. [...]
The anti-migrant protests exposed a deeper crisis of leadership: elected representatives who appear only after fear has already filled the streets. The events of 30 June 2026 should trouble every South African who still believes that democratic leadership means more than occupying office. Across parts of the country, anti-migrant [...]
Dr FM Lucky Mathebula[1] South Africa is entering a dangerous moral and political moment. A legitimate debate about undocumented migration, border management and state capacity is being pulled into a darker terrain where language, surname, accent, dress and cultural origin are increasingly treated as evidence of foreignness. In this terrain, [...]
Introduction Corruption does not arrive wearing party colours. It follows money, nests where power is concentrated, and flourishes wherever accountability is weak. South Africa’s post-2024 political settlement has therefore placed a simple but uncomfortable test before the country: will we apply the same moral standard to everyone who exercises public [...]
The concerns raised about corruption, inequality and democratic drift are legitimate and must be confronted with seriousness. However, the democratic mandate must not be abandoned; it must be honoured through accelerated reform, institutional rebuilding and the renewal of the ANC as an instrument of service to the people. By Dr [...]
There are days that do not simply arrive on the calendar; they open old rooms inside us. Father’s Day is one of those days: a public occasion that becomes, almost immediately, a private reckoning. It asks us to remember not only the man who gave us a name, a bloodline, [...]
Dr FM Lucky Mathebula (Prof) Founder SRC President, 1985. Transvaal College of Education When the news of Sello Mpya (Jele), known to us with affection and familiarity as Two-Two, reached me, it arrived with the terrible finality by which a living presence is converted into memory. The sadness was not [...]
Dr FM Lucky Mathebula, 29 June 2010. This is a repost. The FIFA 2010 World Cup hosting by South Africa will go into history as an event that redefined the essence of being South African. The pre-June 11 preparations were to most of us seen within the prism of infrastructure [...]
As South Africa approaches another June 16 amid rising tension over undocumented foreign nationals, the country faces a test of political seriousness. Youth Day should not become a licence for nostalgia, denial or scapegoating. It should compel the state to confront a real migration challenge firmly, lawfully and without cruelty. [...]
Published in the Sunday Times, 12 April 2026 Thirty years after South Africa’s democratic transition, the paradox of being a voter has sharpened. Citizens continue to love their country deeply, yet their trust in those who govern has eroded. Voting, once an uncomplicated expression of loyalty to the liberation movement, [...]
