A CELEBRATION OF GRIEF AND GRATITUDE: FAREWELL TO MARUBINI FLORENCE TSEDU
On this Saturday, more than a dozen of us journalists and editors turned up for the remembrance service of big brother and industry colleague, Mathata Tsedu’s wife, Marubini Florence Tsedu. We came as colleagues. We left as family. In addition, there were a few hundred people who filled up a blue and white marquee in […]
BLACK WEDNESDAY: NEARLY 50 YEARS OF TRYING TO BURY A SPIRIT THAT REFUSES TO DIE
On 19 October 1977, the apartheid regime did what it does best when it is afraid: it banned. On that day, notoriously known as Black Wednesday, Minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger banned 18 Black Consciousness organisations in one sweep. SASO, SASM, BPC, BCP, BWP, and 13 others – all gone with one signature. Two newspapers, […]
BATHO PELE CONVENTION – SIYAZENZELA
Invitation to ALL PEOPLE who attended Public Schools in Soweto for a meeting to form a permanent, independent and member-funded organization to support the infrastructure maintenance of Soweto Primary and Secondary Schools raises curiosity.. You must read it twice. The poster is polite. Too polite. That is what makes it dangerous! The government built no […]
KHULU PHASIWE, “A WAR CORRESPONDENT WITHOUT A HELMET” – SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO ONE OF SOUTH AFRICA’S THE BEST SPOKESPERSONS
RIP FROM GSMN AND READERS: HUMBLE TO THE END: Late Khulu Phasiwe was committed and dedicated to public service in his unique down-to-earth way. Former Eskom spokesman, Khulu Phasiwe once said something that left an indelible impression on my mind. 702 radio host Stephen Grootes conducted an exit interview to oay tribute to him. And […]
CAN A BENEFICIARY OF “BEE” IN AN UNJUST ECONOMIC SYSTEM SPEAK ABOUT ETHICAL AND IMPACTFUL LEADERSHIP?
We have entered a dangerous phase in South Africa where a man holds two opposing ideas in his head and still claim to be sane. They say we are beyond the binary age, now. You can be as rich as whites, enjoy their lifestyle and still claim to be Black. Not Black as colour, but […]
THE MAKING OF A RENOWNED PHOTOGRAPHER: HOW FANIE JASON LIFTED HIMSELF BY HIS BOOTSTRAPS TO CAPTURE HISTORY, CULTURE, POLITICS AND FASHION
If you read his story with comprehension, you soon learn that Fanie Jason did not wait for photography to find him. He went looking for it. It is 1974. Gugulethu. Dust roads, crowded yards, passbooks and police vans. A young man walks through the township carrying a camera where other young men carry nothing but […]
HISTORY IS NOT HERITAGE: WHY WE MUST CHOOSE WHAT WE KEEP
Not everything that is history is heritage. That phrase – simple as it may seem – is dangerous in South Africa right now, because we are confusing the two. We are preserving everything old as if it is sacred, and throwing away things that are sacred because they are not old. Let us be clear. […]
STEVE BIKO WAS NOT A JOURNALIST
We have a crisis of definition in South African journalism and media fraternity. Everyone is called a “journalist.” The intern rewriting press releases, the opinion writer, the TikTok activist and the veteran columnist are all dumped into one job description. But when the backlash comes, a columnist is judged by a journalist’s KPI, and a […]
LOVE AND VIOLENCE: DR MBUYISENI NDLOZI’S AUDACIOUS BID TO BE THE BIKO-FANON OF A LOST GENERATION
I did not attend the launch. I watched it on TV. But this book matters. Not because it is perfect. Because it is necessary. Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi’s Love and Violence: A Revolt Against Permanent Juniority arrives at a moment when his generation – the born-free, the tenderpreneurs, the unemployed graduates, the greedy beneficiaries of democracy […]
TO ZUKILE MEMELA: THE GAMBU MAN WHO RAISED HIS HAND FOR DIEPKLOOF
Zuki, last born of my brother. You are my blood. I saw that you raised your hand. Not for a photo. Not for a title.You raised your hand to run for Ward Councilor in Diepkloof. A very tough and volatile township. And I do not need to tell you what that means. But I wish […]
THE CONVERSATION THAT MUST HAPPEN: BIKO ASKS MBEKI: WHY?
It is 49 years after Steve Biko was murdered on a mat in Room 977. The strange thing about history is that sometimes it stages conversations that never happened. Two voices echo through the same country, breathe the same air, claim the same liberation and yet never sit at the same table to account. Still […]
THE MYTH OF THE ARTIST AS A SPECIAL CITIZEN: ARTISTS ARE NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE BRICKLAYER
The death of any 96-year-old is sad. The death of a 96-year-old artist who lived in a shack is even sadder. But sadness is not analysis, and grief is not policy. I feel we cannot be angry at Gayton McKenzie or the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. Condemning them after the death of Bra […]