Two-thirds of all COVID-19 testing in South Africa has been conducted in costly private hospitals. This is raising questions as to whether the most vulnerable sections of the population are being tested sufficiently, writes Pavan Kulkarni.
South Africa
Anti-apartheid freedom fighter, Denis Goldberg spent more than a quarter of his life in jail before he was released in 1985. He spent the remaining years speaking out against oppression and injustice before dying on April 29 in Cape Town at the age of 87, writes Raymond Suttner.
Pandemics have their roots in environmental change and ecosystem disturbances. Understanding their foundational causes can provide fertile ground for the systemic changes we so desperately need, writes Dale McKinley.
Veteran South Africa anti-Apartheid activist Sidney Luckett spoke to Green Left's Peter Boyle about the important link between South Africa's iconic freedom fighter Nelson Mandela and Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.
There were protests galore in the build up to South Africa’s May 8 national elections, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the people’s victory against Apartheid. Protests occurred in many parts of the country but predominately in Gauteng, the nation’s industrial heartland, and in the Western Cape, with its legacy of colonialism, writes Trevor Ngwane.
The highest decision-making body in the world of athletics has rendered a judgment that can only be described as both cruel and unusual, writes Dave Zirin.
“Equality, work and land” is the slogan of a new radical political party in South Africa that seeks to revolutionise South African politics and contest elections in May.
The Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) held its launch congress over April 4-6 in Johannesburg. More than 1000 party militants and cadre attended from provinces across the country, as well as international guests from countries such as Zambia, Argentina, Brazil, Sweden, Morocco and Nepal.
The World Social Forum’s “Thematic Forum on Mining and Extractivism” convened from November 12-15 here in Johannesburg, just after the Southern Africa People’s Tribunal on Transnational Corporations.
The World Social Forum’s “Thematic Forum on Mining and Extractivism” convened from November 12-15 here in Johannesburg, just after the Southern Africa People’s Tribunal on Transnational Corporations.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took office in February from Jacob Zuma, is facing a rebellion within the union movement over proposed changes to the labour laws.
The South African parliament has voted for a motion to amend the constitution that will allow the government to expropriate private land without compensation. However, a true resolution of the land question must be in accordance with the needs of those who work and live off the land.
This means the destruction of all existing tribal and feudal relations in the rural areas — and the nationalisation of the land.
New South African President Cyril Ramaphosa made headlines when the ANC leader backed legal changes that could allow land reform to redistribute land from traditionally powerful white owners to the Black majority.
But this populist posture aside, the new administration is seeking to deepen pro-corporate neoliberalism and austerity.
The rise of Cyril Ramaphosa, from the ruling African National Congress (ANC), to South African president following a February 15 vote by the National Assembly was largely greeted with sighs of relief and expressions of joy.
However, jubilation over Ramaphosa’s election obscures a murky past and stormy future.
Cape Town — in which some of Africa’s most affluent live — is rapidly running out of water. Population growth and a record drought, exacerbated by climate change, are creating one of the world’s most dramatic urban water crises.
Last week a conceptual barrier carefully constructed by South Africa’s elites since 2015 was suddenly cracked at the University of the Witwatersrand Great Hall, by two of the country’s leading economic personalities: Pravin Gordhan, who served as a pro-business finance minister for seven years until being sacked in March, and super-consultant Iraj Abedian, who in 1996 co-authored the country’s post-apartheid structural adjustment programme. Two more solid bourgeois representatives would be hard to find.
Peasants across Africa are intensifying their struggles against land grabs and other harmful policies that promote industrial agriculture. At a recent international conference organised by the world’s largest peasant movement, Via Campesina, African peasants had opportunities to share their experiences of struggle and to learn.
“It is amazing to see how linked our struggles are,” said Nicolette Cupido from the Agrarian Reform for Food Sovereignty Campaign (FSC) in South Africa.
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