Understanding South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel
South Africa is asking the International Court of Justice to declare that in its war against Gaza, Israel has breached its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
South Africa
Beyoncé’s Sun City moment
The release of 'Renaissance' in Israel has spelled the end of informed indifference when it comes to Beyoncé and other stars who choose to do business with the apartheid regime.
The story of Eskom
Load-shedding, deepening privatization, and unaffordable electricity makes it difficult to imagine a pivot away from the neoliberal approach to South Africa’s climate crisis.
Henry Kissinger’s South Africa
In the 1970s, Kissinger believed that the liberation of southern Africa from white-minority rule represented a Cold War setback.
Weeping for Palestine
In 1987, a band led by a group of South African Jewish brothers released a song against apartheid repression. Today, its lyrics speak to conditions in Palestine as well.
Israel’s Sharpeville moment
It is often imagined that world opinion was always united in its opposition to apartheid in South Africa—it wasn’t. Today, global indifference to Palestine is changing too.
Arming oppression
Africa’s largest arms trader is trying to obscure its ties with apartheid Israel, and its connections to other autocratic regimes.
Solidarity means more than words
Although the South African government is one of the most vocal supporters of the Palestinian cause, its actions tell a different story.
Hier kom die bokke
Something’s different about the reaction to South Africa’s victory at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, its fourth title.
Reading List: Faeeza Ballim
What does the history of South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, tell us about the apartheid and post-apartheid state?
The deafening silence of South African universities
South Africans have to demand an academic boycott of Israel, in the same way much of the Global South boycotted apartheid South Africa’s universities.
Decolonizing the South African climate movement
In South Africa, white climate groups are detached from broader struggles for economic justice and equality.
There are no monuments
Gladys Nzimande-Tsolo, who died on 27 September 2023, was a South African freedom fighter. Why has she been forgotten?
Wathinta abafazi, wathinta imbokodo
How 'Dawn' magazine illustrates the significant role women played in South Africa’s armed struggle against apartheid.
The Airbnb’fication of Cape Town
AirBnb is making the idea of a liveable, walkable city unattainable, while deepening inequality and decimating local industries.
Reimagining non-alignment
In the context of climate apartheid, a new scramble for resources, and debt crises, the Global South must find another way to be human.
Against exceptionalism
Although visibility is important, contemporary queer African literature reveals how easily representation privileges narratives of the resourceful and upwardly mobile.
Amazon in Cape Town’s murky waters
The predatory tech giant is at the center of a heritage site land grab, pitting indigenous and environmental activists against city authorities.
The myth of the apolitical commission
In response to the Johannesburg fire disaster, the South African government has announced a ‘politically free’ commission of inquiry. But there is no such thing.
Black women write
In her new biography of South African writer Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell shows how the publishing industry historically excluded Black women, and how they wrote in spite of that.