T.O. Molefe makes his New York Times debut

The website of the international edition of the The New York Times website debuted two dozen new "international" columnists this week. One of them is an AIAC contributor.

The familiar New York Times logo.

The New York Times Opinion Page has given us swivel-eyed loons like Nicholas Kristof, Tom Friedman and humility tsar David Brooks. But we’re forgiving people at AIAC and despite this we let them borrow T.O. Molefe to show them how it’s done. One of two dozen new “international” columnists, he made his debut on the website of the international edition of the The New York Times website yesterday and who has been a regular at AIAC for some time.

We saw plenty of people on social networks congratulating Molefe yesterday. This is a mistake of course: they ought to be congratulating the New York Times instead. For his first NYT column, he wrote about neoliberal politics in Cape Town, where he lives. Here’s an excerpt:

… despite evidence showing that the economy almost tripled in size over the past two decades and inequality worsened, pundits, business leaders and policy makers, including [the opposition Democratic Alliance, which rules Cape Town], continue to insist that growth heals all. It just needs to be made more inclusive, they say.

The solution, they say, lies in deregulating the labor market to get people into jobs — regardless of whether those jobs are secure or allow people to live with basic dignity — and relaxing exchange controls to give South African capital greater global mobility, because it will all trickle down to the poor in the end.

They are wrong. The solutions they propose have been tried elsewhere and have failed. But such arguments are particularly infuriating because they relegate to a side show the goal of remedying the racial and economic inequality created by colonialism and apartheid — those same forces that pushed … and millions … to the city’s periphery — out of sight.

We suspect the city fathers – who are quite thinned skinned about others pointing out their dodgy PR politics – won’t like the column.

Further Reading

The grift tank

In Washington’s think tank ecosystem, Africa is treated as a low-stakes arena where performance substitutes for knowledge. The result: unqualified actors shaping policy on behalf of militarists, lobbyists, and frauds.

Kagame’s hidden war

Rwanda’s military deployments in Mozambique and its shadowy ties to M23 rebels in eastern Congo are not isolated interventions, rather part of a broader geopolitical strategy to expand its regional influence.

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahel States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.

Whose game is remembered?

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations opens in Morocco amid growing calls to preserve the stories, players, and legacy of the women who built the game—before they’re lost to erasure and algorithm alike.

Sovereignty or supremacy?

As far-right politics gain traction across the globe, some South Africans are embracing Trumpism not out of policy conviction but out of a deeper, more troubling identification.