Fascism Spoken Softly Does Not Soften its Blows

New Frame Editorial As xenophobic mobilisation escalates, democracy appears increasingly fragile. A new vision of emancipation rooted in a politics of solidarity is needed now more than ever. The broader unemployment rate is 46.2%. Almost two million of the jobs lost in the lockdowns during the severely mishandled Covid-19 crisis have not returned. Millions of…

South African State Escalates Repression Against Shack Dwellers’ Movement

Pavan Kulkarni Abahlali baseMjondolo has been targetted with heavy repression and violence by state security forces as well as thugs from the ruling ANC party. Photo: Abahlali baseMjondolo In the wake of the assassination of two activists from Abahlali baseMjondolo, six members of the movement have been charged with murder The six members of Abahlali…

Persecuted Leader of South Africa’s Shack Dweller Movement Assassinated

Pavan Kulkarni Ayanda Ngila, the twice imprisoned deputy chairperson of eKhenana occupation of Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM), was shot dead on March 8. Photo: Abahlali baseMjondolo The 29-year-old deputy chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo’s eKhenana occupation was killed in Durban by four gunmen, allegedly led by the son of the local chief of the ruling ANC, against…

What Comes After National Liberation Movements?

Imraan Buccus Egypt will celebrate the centenary of its independence from Britain in February. About 70 years ago, liberation began to sweep across the rest of Africa. December 1951 marked the independence of Libya. Ghana won its independence in 1957. The Congo followed in 1960, Tanzania in 1961, Algeria in 1962, Kenya in 1963 and…

A Scheme of Legitimation: South Africa’s Revisionism

 Thand’Olwethu Dlanga South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) government is exhibiting the past in the present by forging narratives, images, metaphors and symbols to create a specific perspective. The purpose of that perspective is to make sense of the past in ways that render their actions in the present more plausible. They sanction struggle…

‘The Politic of Blood’: Political Repression in South Africa

Kerry Ryan ChanceAn Anti-Eviction Campaign activist gazes at the construction site of the Delft transit camp, a ‘temporary relocation area’ for people evicted from shacks closer to the city. March 2009. Political Repression in South Africa In his famous speech from the dock in April 1964, Nelson Mandela spoke of ‘revolutionary democracy’ rooted in precolonial…

Army Brought in to Aid Illegal Evictions in South Africa

Pavan Kulkarni The Azania shack dwellers’ settlement of Cato Manor, Durban, was attacked by agents hired by the eThekwini municipality authorities on April 2, Thursday. 15 shacks were demolished, leaving several people homeless at a time when a lockdown has been imposed by the South African government and people have been ordered to stay home….

South Africa: The Socialists Speak

Brian Kelly 25 years fter the fall of Apartheid, South Africa remains a deeply unequal society. But are things beginning to change, as cracks appear in the country’s ruling party, the ANC? Brian Kelly recently sat down with Trevor Ngwane, Simphiwe Zwane and Edwin Lfufutswane—three activists on the South African Radical Left—to get their take…

Libyan Popular National Movement’s Letter to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa

Libyan Popular National Movement’s Letter to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa – PDF

South Africa: Talking Marxism, Serving Capitalism

South Africa is the only place in the world where the entire Black political class speaks in the language of Marxism-Leninism, even when they are in cahoots with Big Capital. What Happened to South Africa’s Freedom Charter? Sixty Years Anniversary of the Freedom Charter Amid Release of Farlam Commission Report

New South African Party to “Overthrow Capitalism”

Black Agenda Report with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford Irvin Jim, leader of South Africa’s largest union, told a People’s Forum audience in New York City that the newly formed Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party is not “another reformist party. We want to overthrow capitalism in South Africa.” He was joined by Dr. Cosmas Musumali, leader…

South Africa: Socialist Revolutionary Workers’ Party Vows to Resist Government’s Privatization Move

Irvin Jim, NUMSA The working class unions in South Africa, including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), have been resisting the rampant privatization move of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) for months. One of the workers’ struggle was in the state energy enterprise, Eskom, for wage hike…

Youth Touched by Biko: The Quest for a “More Humane Face”

Veli Mbele This brief input deals with the meaning of Steve Bantu Biko for young people today and whether his vision of bestowing upon South Africa “a more humane face” remains valid. Biko is without doubt one of the most important figures of Black liberation of the past century. Today, 41 years after his murder,…

Abahlali baseMjondolo March Against State Repression, Threats and Assassinations

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement Today, Abahlali baseMjondolo march against repression in Durban. Solidarity protests are also taking place in Cape Town, Johannesburg and New York. Since our movement was founded in 2005 we have faced waves of repression including assault, arrest, torture in police custody, organised campaigns of slander, the destruction of our homes, death threats,…

South Africa: Death of Zabalaza Mshengu Highlights Challenges with Land Reforms

Zabalaza Mshengu | Photo: AFRA For nearly twenty years, 104-year-old Zabalaza Mshengu waited to know whether or not his proper to a chunk of land he grew up and lived on had been settled. But it surely was a dream that he would by no means see being realised. Mshengu was born on a farm…

Mother of the Nation, A Daughter of the Soil

Bathabile Dlamini The biggest tree has fallen. A woman among women has fallen. An icon of the Struggle, iqhawe lamaqhawe lihambile! Umaphuma efumbethe esiswini sikanina aze ahambe efumbethe ukuba yinkokheli yabantu. South Africa has a long time to wait until she gets such a lioness who fought the apartheid regime as well as the oppression…

South Africa: New Plans for a Radical Transformation of Society

Alexander Mezyaev On 13 January, the latest in a series of celebrations to mark the 106th anniversary of the African National Congress (ANC) party took place in South Africa (see ANC manifesto link below). The party’s plans were announced for the first time by the ANC’s new head, Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected at the…

South Africa’s ANC Manifesto for Transformation

Statement of the National Executive Committee on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of the African National Congress Fellow South Africans, The African National Congress turns 106 years this year. We are in the Eastern Cape, the home of legends. As the newly elected leadership of the ANC, we visited and laid wreaths at the…