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In an article titled Wanted: An Ideal Recovery Plan, penned in the Citizen, Mukoni Ratshitanga laments ‘the depoliticization of society’ which could lead to the mobilisation of all sorts of phenomenon that can position themselves ‘outside the modus operandi of a democratic politics’. Presumably accusing it of the same, mind you an opposition party, is the …

A Forgotten Story of Nationalism: A Follow-up to Mukoni Ratshitanga’s oeuvre Read More »

What is state capture? Is it a capture of all three arms of the State? If so, or even if it’s just a capture of one arm of the State, how is this effected? Is it by way of a bribe or by foreclosing stories? Perhaps it’s both. But in this commentary, I’m concerned with …

The Stories of State Capture Read More »

The victory of Cyril Ramaphosa and Ace Magashule, President and Secretary General, respectively, and the recently elected National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC), at their December 2017 elective Conference, is best captured in the 2018 narrative ‘new dawn’, which used Thuma mina as a call for active citizenship. After then President Jacob Zuma …

The ‘New Dawn’: uThuma bani? Read More »

“The function of the historian is neither to love the past nor to emancipate himself from the past, but to master and understand it as the key to the understanding of the present”[1] Many events have occurred this past week and a half. And it is has become a norm, given our public debates, to …

Africanists in the make of the Congress Movement Read More »

It has been a long, laborious, year. An emotionally and spiritually taxing journey, all of which drained me. Frankly, I thought it was 2016 all over again. But I’m here. And don’t get me wrong, the draining was good for me. Part of this personal journey, as one inevitably moves inward, was knowing how and …

What is the fate of the South African liberation project? Read More »

What is the history of pact-making in South Africa? What is the nature and form of these pacts given the reality that ‘South Africa’ was founded by imperialist interests? And how have these interests, developing as they did as a result of international Capitalist expansion over time, impacted on the form and nature of resistance …

A history of South Africa’s Political Economy: Advancing a Cyclical Perspective of South Africa’s contemporary crossroad Read More »

A few months ago I wrote an unfinished article entitled ‘Entering our own ignorance’. It was a blurb I wrote concerning the period of ethical blindness in which the ANC had firmly entered into. Further, I did not, at the time, envision the sort of dissatisfaction and backlash the ANC would get at this year’s …

Alternative impulses of yesteryear figure in the present Read More »

For a 3000-word article, it is not surprising that Achille Mbembe received quite a number of article responses. Most of which were correctly pointed but unfortunately combative; on the balance of responses, therefore, one gets a sense that they fell short of upholding the analytical rigour which, in fact, anchors the ‘moral rage’ that epitomises …

From Mbembe to Kadalie: Mapping out generational shifts Read More »

A weekend ago South Africa witnessed the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), elect a Black leader as its head. We witnessed, in his inaugural speech, a defiant Mmusi Maimane respond to many of his critics. The elected leader cast doubt on criticisms that he was a briefcase, or a ‘garden boy’, for this …

The Democratic Alliance: Prospects for “liberalism” in South Africa Read More »

It is instructive to begin by saying that although Malaika Wa Azania does not subject the concept “Born Free” to any substantive critique, the reader is invited to access the inescapable truth that there exists no such generation at any grand scale, and that the promises of liberation came to be burdened by the weight …

Memoirs of a Born Free: A critical book review Read More »