Day: May 31, 2026

BEFORE FOREIGN SPAZA SHOPS TOOK OVER, BLACK SOUTH AFRICANS HAD ALREADY BUILT THIER OWN ECONOMIES

South Africa’s current debate about immigration, foreign-owned spaza shops, and collapsing township economies suffers from a serious problem: collective amnesia. A growing number of people speak as though black South Africans only entered commerce after democracy — or worse, as though township trade only became organised after foreign shop networks emerged across rural villages and […]

STILL NO AGREEMENT WITH IRAN AFTER TRUMP CONTRADICTS HIMSELF AGAIN

Yesterday, President Trump put out a statement in which he declared that he was lifting the naval blockade of Iran but that there’s a number of things Iran “must” do. “Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb. The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, for unrestricted shipping […]

STILL MORE MIGHT-MAKES-RIGHT MILITARISM IN THE AMERICAS

An ominous event took place in the Americas in the past week. On May 28 the foreign and security ministers of five Ibero-American nations—Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Ecuador—met in Santiago, Chile, convened by that country’s President Jose Antonio Kast, to announce the formation of a new regional agreement to collaborate in combating organized transnational […]

SOUTH AFRICA AND KENYA TO HOST A BUSINESS FORUM IN GAUTENG

The Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (the DTIC) will host a Business Forum that will bring together business representatives, senior government officials and economic cluster ministers from both South Africa and Kenya. The Business Forum is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 4 June 2026 at the Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand starting at 09:00. […]

UN ADDS ISRAEL TO BLACKLIST FOR SEXUAL CRIMES DURING CONFLICT

On Thursday, the UN added Israel to its blacklist for sexual crimes committed during conflict. According to Middle East Eye, the blacklist forms part of the annex to the UN secretary-general’s annual report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV). It identifies parties credibly suspected of committing patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence during […]

THE SPIRITUAL WEIGHT OF SONNY ROLLINS: REFLECTIONS THROUGH RENE MCLEAN

As news of Sonny Rollins‘s passing travelled across the jazz world, much was written about the musician. The giant. The innovator. The architect of modern tenor saxophone. The man who stood shoulder to shoulder with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Charlie Parker and the other titans who altered the course of twentieth-century […]