This article in The New York Times addresses both the promise but also the difficulties of addressing some of South Africa’s public transportation difficulties through the growth of public buses as a viable form of mass transportation, especially from the distant (for those without vehicles) townships and the urban cores. I am particularly interested in […]
According to at least one organization Kenya has a vibrant and safe media culture compared with many other African nations, and even does reasonably well when placed next to many European countries.
The outside world is sending somewhat mixed messages on Zimbabwe. The International Monetary Fund has restored Zim’s voting rights, albeit with the caveat that any new loans will only be considered until it pays arrears of about US$140 million to the Poverty Reduction & Growth Trust (PRGT). The European Union, meanwhile, believes that the country […]
One of the questions about South Africa’s preparation for the World Cup has been just what benefit the majority of the country’s people will accrue from the event, especially when the world has packed up and headed back home. National Commissioner of the Police Bheki Cele argues that policing will be markedly improved because of […]
I’ve been out of commission for a few days with travel and catching up and the ebbs and flows of modern life. Here is a deluge of links to get you (and me) back in the swing of things: In South Africa there is a new documentary series on the Truth and Reconciliation process, When […]
Not surprisingly, critics and opposition politicians found much to disparage and little to like in Jacob Zuma’s ambitious State of the Union speech. Independent Newspapers Group Deputy Political Editor Gaye Davis thinks that above all Zuma desperately needs a better speechwriter. The Democratic Alliance (DA), Independent Democrats (ID) and Congress of the People (COPE) have […]
The anti-corruption watchdog group Transparency International believes that Kenya runs the risk of becoming a “failed state” because the bogged-down political process in that country means corruption is going unattended to. This seems like a dramatic, and not especially useful, overstatement. Kenya has had more than its share of difficulties, to be sure. But the […]
The European Union has extended most of the sanctions against Zimbabwe for another year, citing the lack of progress on negotiating for a new government. It is hard to argue the lack of progress part, but I am just not sure that continuing sanctions is part of the solution rather than part of the problem. […]
At The Boston Globe Derrick Z. Jackson reminds us that Nelson Mandela has prescient things to say about the global economic system more than ten years ago: When Mandela came to Harvard University in 1998 to receive an honorary degree, he said, “The current world financial crisis also starkly reminds us that many of the […]
The Mail and Guardian asks a range of South Africans where they were when Madiba was released from prison twenty years ago. The New York Times asked seven former political prisoners to write about what Mandela’s release meant to them.
Over at The Mail & Guardian Verashni Pillay has some fun at the expense of South Africa’s white liberals.
Almost lost in the shuffle of Jacob Zuma’s personal controversies was his State of the Union address, which he delivered on Thursday night. As one observer has noted, Zuma tried to appropriate Nelson Mandela. That legitimate politics and policies will get buried as the result of Zuma’s indiscretion is precisely the problem with those indiscretions, […]
From the African Studies Centre at Leiden: 11 February 2010 marks 20 years since the apartheid regime of South Africa unbanned the African National Congress and other liberation movements, and released Nelson Mandela from prison. The Library, Documentation and Information Department of the African Studies Centre Leiden has compiled a web dossier to coincide with […]
Free advice for Congress of the People (COPE) leader Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota: If you are going to condemn President Jacob Zuma for what you assert are his moral lapses, you probably ought not to be guilty of very similar transgressions.
ANC Youth League Leader Julius Malema is a lightning rod for controversy. But I fail to see how his most recent remarks, in which he asserted that former President FW de Klerk is “not a hero” and was a “product of apartheid,” are worthy of disapproval, never mind punishment. The truth is usually a good […]