Otelo Burning, a South African-directed film that opened the Durban International Film Festival in 2011, has as its backdrop the township of Lamontville, and the political violence that erupted there during the 1980s. Much like Mpumalanga that we wrote about last week, Lamontville too was besieged by infighting during the 1980s as members of the … Read more
Some 47 years ago a meeting was held in Durban to discuss a national day of mourning for South Africa’s political detainees. The meeting was sparked by the death of Ahmed Timol, who had died in police custody on the 27th October 1971. Timol was the 22nd political detainee to die since 1963. By 1990, a further … Read more
While the influence of newspapers seems to have diminished in favour of online reporting in recent years, there’s no disputing the role that the media have always played in representing the interests of the people. The stories that newspapers choose to feature (or not feature for that matter) guide public opinion on all manner of … Read more
Last month saw President Cyril Ramaphosa bestow the 2018 National Orders on a number of extraordinary local citizens and foreign nationals. The National Orders, which are presented annually on Freedom Day, are the highest awards that the country can bestow on individuals. In 1998, the Presidential Advisory Council on National Orders was tasked with revising the orders … Read more
Next Thursday the Alliance Française will host a tribute to the legendary South African musician, Miriam Makeba. Popularly referred to as ‘Mama Africa’, Makeba spent a good deal of her musical career living in exile in England and North America, and later in Guinea, West Africa. Makeba left South Africa in 1959 as a result of run-ins … Read more
As Women’s Month draws to a close in South Africa, we look at the documentary, Strike a Rock, the name of which references the famous apartheid resistance song that has become synonomous with the1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Harking back to the days of apartheid, the saying ‘Wathint’ Abafazi, Wathint’ Imbokodo‘ (you strike … Read more