BLACK OWNERSHIP OF THE ECONOMY IN SA: NOTHING TANGIBLE TO SHOW FOR IT BUT A STACK OF SHARE CERTIFICATES
Not long after the ANC was unbanned, and with most of its former exiled leaders back in the country, a delegation which included Pallo Jordan went for a walkthrough visit to the JSE. When asked about his impressions by a journalist – I guess the hidden question was his impressions of Capitalism at work – […]
TRANSFORMATION OF SOUTH AFRICA’S POLITICAL ECONOMY HOBBLED BY NEOLIBERAL MACRO ECONOMICS
Since the commencement of its transition to democracy in the early nineties, South Africa’s unemployment rate has been rising steadily and has now reached untenable proportions. The ever-increasing trajectory of unemployment and near stagnation in economic growth, are just a mirror reflecting the structural nature of the problems facing the country’s political economy. However, the […]
SOUTH AFRICA’S SHARED HERITAGE: A CONUNDRUM OF TWO NATIONS IN ONE
In South Africa, 24th September is a holiday celebrated as Heritage Day. This is a holiday that was etched on the calendar of the post-national liberation public holidays to celebrate South Africa’s diverse and rich heritage of multi-cultures. There is no denial that a people’s heritage is carried by its tangible and intangible artefacts. In […]
BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE 21ST CENTURY – STILL A POWERFUL PHILOSOPHY
The potency of a political theory is not measured by the sting of its rhetoric but the effectiveness of its translation in the transformation of society The objective material conditions of living are instructive to the generation of the subjective interpretation of the meaning and understanding of their manifestation in our experiences. In the South […]
BIKO: A MAN OF HIS TIMES WITH A MIND AHEAD OF ITS TIMES
Our common sense has lulled us into thinking that men are now more civilised and would be more considerate, and more tolerant, in their handling of fellow humans, yet everyday reality tells us otherwise. The brutality of the wicked is unmasked before our own disbelieving eyes with uncompromising vigour and boldness. Babylon has engulfed us […]
UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE BIKO INQUEST: AN INTERROGATION OF THE DECIMATION OF OUR MORAL CONSCIENCE AND THE DEARTH OF MEANINGFUL POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
September month in South Africa is Black Consciousness month. It is in this month that we reflect on the life and death of the giant of our struggle for liberation and an icon of the Black Consciousness Movement, Stephen Bantu Biko. Steve Biko gained world renown when he died in police custody at the hands […]
CONSTITUTION UNCONSTITUTIONAL: A CRITIQUE OF SOUTH AFRICA’S 1996 CONSTITUTIONAL DISPENSATION
The 8th May marked 30 years since South Africa adopted a new constitutional dispensation in 1996 under a democratic order. The constitution is not just a symbolic document. It is the supreme law and the foundation upon which our constitutional democracy rests. Its importance cannot be over emphasised given the country’s history of divisions stemming […]
BANTUSTANISM 2.0 AND THE RUINS OF A FAILED NATIONAL BOURGEOUIS STATE
After three decades of experimentation with a bourgeois democracy, it is as clear as daylight that our country is in free fall. We have been hobbling from crisis to crisis with no real solution on the horizon. Except for the first decade when we were still wallowing in the euphoria of democracy, the post-colonial polity […]