“No parent, no matter how poor, should have to bury a five-year-old – a child that lay in faeces. -Equal Education

This week we mark Human Rights Day, on the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. It comes in the wake of the second known death of a five-year-old child, Lumka Mketwa, found in a pit latrine in Bizana in the Eastern Cape, birth place of Oliver Tambo. Michael Komape also drowned in faeces in a pit latrine in Limpopo, in 2014. Continue reading →

The election of Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC president in December evoked high expectations from a range of quarters in South African society, because it was seen as a break from the Zuma years and various expectations arose over what this entailed. Continue reading →

What type of politics do we have and what do we need for every citizen to feel that he or she belongs in this country and contributes to the shape of its present and future?  Continue reading →

As one watches the unfolding of the Cyril Ramaphosa presidency one sees the care taken in preparing almost every gesture and presentation that Ramaphosa has made.  Continue reading →

Many will evaluate Jacob Zuma’s legacies by considering its impact on the economy, the rule of law, public institutions and similar factors.  This article considers some of these questions but also examines the ways in which Zuma’s legacies affect the very notion of being a South African in collective and individual contexts. Continue reading →

Ever since the ANC conference in December the public and for the most part, the ANC has watched how ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa would address the departure of Jacob Zuma from the state presidency.  Continue reading →

Making deals, through securing a meeting of minds, always bears the danger that one celebrates negotiating skills and deal making rather than carefully scrutinising what is agreed.  Continue reading →