By Kristin Palitza Guest Blogger The plane hits the tarmac with a brief thud. I have landed in South Africa, for the first time. As I exit through the sliding doors of the baggage claim area, an elderly woman is waving at me. She works with Amnesty International, one of the organisations I have come […]
A recent survey shows that white people still sit comfortably atop the pile of income earners in South Africa. The latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), shows that for 2008 white South Africans made considerably more than other races. According to the survey, the average per capita […]
The Johannesburg weekly newspaper, “Mail & Guardian,” recently published its (annual?) “Race Issue.” The idea of a “Race Issue” seems odd as a topic in South Africa since race define that country’s everyday. And it sort of implies, although I don’t think they meant it, that now they’ll get back to reporting other things: We’ll […]
Researcher Kelly Rosenthal writing in the Mail & Guardian about witnessing the beat-down of a poor black homeless man by black security guards in a shopping mall in Cape Town while shoppers (both black and white) look on approvingly: This is the true toxic inheritance of apartheid, the final trick played on us. Yes, we […]
Last week three people were killed and scores of others injured or left homeless in attacks on members of a poor squatters movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo, outside the country’s third-largest city, Durban. The attackers shouted: “‘The AmaMpondo are taking over Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu.” AmaMpondo is a veiled reference to identify the squatter movement […]
One of the most clearheaded assessments of the new South Africa that I’ve read in a while. It’s a line from an article by The Guardian’s South Africa correspondent, David Smith. It’s what a cynic told him about Apartheid and its legacy. Read Smith’s take on recent events in South Africa, including the white refugee crises here. It’s […]
The death by suicide of 22- year-old S’khumbuzo Douglas Mhlongo on Friday is an extreme example of how some of our laws and regulations may be adding unnecessary burdens to the lives of the poor. [South Africa] has laws and regulations on its books that place the country on par with some of the developed […]
