What to learn from the People’s Army
This past Tuesday marked the 53rd anniversary of the ruling ANC party’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, affectionately known as MK. I take off my hat and salute this gigantic force that played a huge part in forcing the separatist regime of the Nationalist Party to submit to the revolutionary movement. I shall not waste this precious space by regurgitating what numerous history books have already written about MK. The brilliant history of MK has been sufficiently written about. What I will focus on, instead, is the extent to which we can celebrate the cardinal principles and wonderful character of…
We must stop chasing the wind
Sometimes one can feel like an atom – alone, isolated and abandoned. You must have experienced those moments, too, when you feel you have lost a whole nation of good friends, family, relatives and neighbours. It is enough to drive one crazy because it is so foolish. What I am actually talking about here is how we are losing touch with not just our inner selves, but each other. We are a nation in the making, but it looks like human beings in South Africa are increasingly unable to make time to nurture good relationships that feed the soul. Over…
Special justice for the rich?
The public reaction to the recent high-profile cases of Shrien Dewani and Oscar Pistorius suggests that South Africa has two systems of justice: one for the rich and one for the predominantly African poor. This is for a variety of reasons, race, class and economics, and the African majority mostly has access only to a second-class system of justice. And yet the prevailing narrative about the criminal justice system simply ignores the experience of the African majority. As James Baldwin once observed: “If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the…
