Columnists

After I received a notification that President Cyril Ramaphosa would be giving an address about disability rights I logged on to watch with interest, writes MAKGOSI LETIMILE. The president mentioned how he had brought together a…

“We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.” - Frantz Fanon Fanon tells us that we revolt simply because we can no longer breathe. That is the unfortunate reality of being a poor black child in UKZN. Many…

The Quentin at Oakhurst, a restaurant nestled between the leafy suburbs of Constantia and Hout Bay. Its walls are decorated with memorabilia from colonialism and early Apartheid. An image akin to the old South African flag captioned “The…

It’s been 22 years since the passing of Higher Education Act, Act 101 of 1997 and Education White Paper 3: A Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education, 1997 which guided institutions of higher learning in the new depensation.…

As former employees of Equal Education (EE), who recently left our positions, we have been deeply troubled by the release of former High Court Judge Kathleen Satchwell and Professor Malose Langa’s report examining allegations of sexual…

Recently Buzzfeed News published an article about “Millennial Burnout” - the condition seeming to affect people born between the years 1980 and 2000. It describes a condition when seemingly easy tasks are considerably much difficult for…

Communities and public employment programmes in particular, have a critical role to play in the fight against gender-based violence, writes PALESA MATABOGE. This is in line with one of the outcomes from the National Declaration arising…

Mzansi TV shows continue to tell a sad story of entrenched patriarchy. The reality show Date My Family’s latest episode left social media aghast, with various people condemning the behaviour of the featured bachelor Jongi, who is a firm…

The Abantu Book Festival took place for the third year in a row this past weekend, and more people than ever attended. The festival is a feat for South Africa’s literary sphere, as the first annual event celebrating Black writers, writing…

On Tuesday, in an interview on Power FM, Johann Rupert the billionaire chairperson of the luxury-goods company Financière Richemont SA turned out to be exactly as I hoped he would: thoughtless, patronising, and deeply alienated from the…

On Thursday, the North Gauteng High Court ruled that mining companies and the government must obtain full and informed consent from communities before granting a mining licence on their communally-owned land - a massive victory for the…

The Constitutional Review Committee adopted a recommendation to parliament that section 25 of the Constitution needs to be amended “to make explicit what is implicit”. The indication is that the amendment will not be a drastic…

We need to update our copyright laws to allow poor students fair use rights of textbooks, which remain prohibitively expensive for most, writes THABISO BHENGU. The South African economy is in shambles and the majority of the population…

Not so long-ago political analysts and mainstream commentators were already writing the eulogy of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) because of the election of the ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa and the removal of the former president Zuma.…

A couple of weeks ago Sibusiso Ngwenya (Skinny Sbu) shared on his social media platform that he had been struggling with depression and that the business which he founded over five years ago, Skinny Sbu Socks, needed a cash injection. He…

Noted antiracism practitioner Dr Robin Di Angelo, who coined the term white fragility, talks about how in her workshops she asks people of colour “how often to do we give white people real, honest feedback about the ways in which they are…

What do the human rights of minorities in Iran, in the Middle East, have to do with Africans, writes MAZIAR BAHARI. I started to answer this question when I made my film The Cost of Discrimination in 2017. The film follows the life of an…

On Monday the trial of Nigerian Pastor Timothy Omotoso began in the Eastern Cape High Court in Port Elizabeth. First witness, 22-year-old Cheryl Zondi, was cross-examined and made to relive her traumatic experience by her alleged abuser's…

Since 2012, 11 October has been marked by the United Nations as the International Day of the Girl Child. The day aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls' empowerment and the fulfillment of…

On the 17th of  September 2018, the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, called on law enforcement agencies to help quell the recent spate of violence which has rocked schools in South Africa. This after the South African national…