Tag: apartheid
Smuts & Mandela – The Men Who Made South Africa
South Africa has produced two globally recognised leaders from different eras: Jan Christiaan Smuts and Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Smuts served as Prime Minister from 1919 to 1924 and again from 1939 to 1948. Mandela served as President from 1994 to 1999.
BOOK REVIEW | Exit Wounds
When she turned ninety, my mother sprang a final surprise on us. She started speaking in the voice of a stranger. Peter’s mother is dying. Born in England and having spent most of her adult life as a doctor in Zimbabwe, she now lies on a hospital bed in the partitioned living room of his sister’s London apartment, her accent having overnight become posher than the Queen’s.
BOOK REVIEW | In Whose Place?
Contesting one’s place remains central to confronting the lingering impact of colonisation and apartheid, emerging as it does out of the intermingling of our environments, histories, languages and experiences. In this volume, architects, anthropologists, artists, urban planners, activists and historians examine the ways in which people are rethinking, repurposing and reusing colonial and apartheid architecture and infrastructure.
Challenges and triumphs of women leaders in South Africa
In South Africa, women aspiring to leadership roles encounter a landscape shaped by historical inequalities and persistent socio-economic challenges. Women in leadership, particularly black women in South Africa, face a unique set of challenges deeply rooted in both historical and contemporary contexts.
BOOK REVIEW | Fighting an Invisible Enemy
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is a flagship South African public health organisation, and this book, by its first executive director and virologist Dr Barry Schoub, paints a portrait of its development, despite many challenges, towards becoming an internationally renowned partner in the struggle for global health.
Upholding dignity – the power of a strong code of conduct
In a South African context, ‘dignity’ is a word that is often supercharged, laden with meaning and emotion. Given our dark history where apartheid stripped whole groups of people of their dignity – and because of the prevailing gap between rich and poor, with South Africa having the highest Gini coefficient in the world – we not only have to believe in dignity, we must also strive to uphold it across all aspects of society.
BOOK REVIEW | Present Tense
What if justice isn't enough? Schalk Lourens got out his phone and started filming, something Pieterse taught him years ago. Keep a record. Do it yourself, boykie, every time. That way you can be sure. Cover your arse. Don't trust any of them. Schalk began with Pieterse himself, what was left of him. Cape Town, South Africa.
The faded rainbow – 30 Years into South Africa’s democracy
Three decades into our constitutional democracy, the remnants of our dark past continue to lurk in the layered echelons of our unequal society. In commemoration of Freedom Day, we are reminded that though blood was shed and sacrifices were made to attain this freedom, not all South Africans are privy to its gains. Many South Africans are politically free yet economically poor.
BOOK REVIEW | These Potatoes Look Like Humans
These Potatoes Look Like Humans critiques the narrow materialist and legalistic arguments about the land question to recognise that, for most black South Africans, the meanings of land and dispossession are linked with spirituality and being.
BOOK REVIEW | Collaboration in Development
The book provides a synthesis of the model that was used to launch the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) – a multi-stakeholder collaboration model and the role of enabling instruments like social capital, national heritage, and networking in operationalising partnerships between public and private sector role players – with the aim to drive education improvement.































