There are those who say that there is no place for politics in sport, or for sport in politics, but such people are knaves or fools. Sports and politics have always been linked, and those who decry the politicization of sport tend to have their own political axes to grind. Opposing the global boycott of […]
I hope every one of you had a wonderful Easter. I especially wished for a safe holiday for my South African readers on this, the most dangerous and deadly weekend every year on the country's roads.
At Pambazuka News Yav Katshung Joseph, a Human Rights lawyer and Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo has an in-depth article on Truth Commissions and their historical, political, judicial, and cultural purpose. I have written quite a lot on truth commissions, and I believe […]
The Mail & Guardian has posted a Special Section on Zimbabwe that basically consists of new and recent coverage of the election campaign. This should keep you busy while I partake of the secular American holiday known as “March Madness.”
I was as surprised as anyone to read this morning that Robert Mugabe trails in recent polls taken in Zimbabwe. And I was especially stunned to see that Morgan Tsvangirai, longtime opposition stalwart and largely overlooked (by me included) Movement for Democratic Cchange candidate also running against Mugabe and operating in Simba Makoni's shadow. But […]
Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma are bound to be inextricably linked for the foreseeable future — through the resolution of Zuma's corruption trial or the 2009 election at least — and yet increasingly they seem to represent opposite sides of the same coin. Or to be more precise, they seem to absorb the characteristics of […]
Well, this one provides a cynicism test: Robert Mugabe has declared March 29, the country's election day, to be a public holiday. Now, ordinarily speaking, I believe that anything that makes voting easier and more accessible to the most people is a good thing. And yet Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe is far from ordinary, and […]
IRIN has two stories on the work of the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) in Africa. One involves providing emergency food aid for tens of thousands of people affected by cyclone Jokwe in the north of Mozambique. The other addresses the concerns about food scarcity in Sierra Leone (which the UN has judged to […]
I do not even feign to be an economist, but many observers, including Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, worry that the country's current account deficit represents a “major chink in [South Africa's] armour.” The declining value of the rand and the tenuous state of global markets is also a concern, but as Manuel points out, probably […]
You know that Simba Makoni is no one's puppet. And I know that Simba Makoni is no one's puppet. It is absurd to posit, as Robert Mugabe and his supporters have tried to do in recent days, that Makoni is a tool of the west, of the British or the Americans. Which is why it […]
While some still look to cast blame in Kenya, is appears that the narrative in that country, which saw an explosion of unexpected violence after several years in which it appeared that the country would be a model for all of Africa, has turned to reconciliation. Of course to have true reconciliation, there will have […]
British immigration authorities have decided to deny asylum to more than one thousand Zimbabweans living in the country and to expel them from the country. The Home Office has decided that the asylum seekers face no risk of danger if they return to Zimbabwe, which is prima facie absurd. Zimbabwe is a pariah state — […]
In an extensive interview with the Mail & Guardian ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe last week effectively told COSATU to back off, to stop trying to run the party's and the country's internal affairs, and effectively debunked the idea that Jacob Zuma might be more receptive to giving COSATU and the SACP greater power within […]
Is Tokyo Sexwale laying the foundation for a run at the Presidency if Jacob Zuma's path to power is cut off by his corruption case? That was the first question that came to mind when I saw that Sexwale has started pressing Thabo Mbeki to come clean about his role in the arms deal that increasingly is taking […]