Opinion

LitNet contributors voice their opinions about current affairs.

Illegal immigrants? The post-deadline hangover

Sihle Khumalo Opinion 2026-07-07

"With all this planned weekly rolling mass action, there is one question that is getting louder and louder: Who is funding these 'leaders' and organisations?"

When the stick becomes a slogan: Zulu cultural weapons and the politics of theatre

Bhekisisa Mncube Opinion 2026-07-03

"The tragedy is that the theatre works. A crowd with placards may be ignored. The image of a crowd with sticks and spears travels. The image circulates. The message hardens. Migrants see it."

Will deporting illegal foreigners benefit the economy? | Wie wen as buitelandse werkers weggaan?

Johan Fourie Opinion 2026-06-26

"We have little solid proof that foreign workers are the reason South Africans cannot find jobs, or that removing them would open those jobs to anyone else. What economics can speak to with more assurance is the other side of the ledger: the measurable consequences of acting on the anger." | "Ons het egter min bewyse dat buitelandse werkers wel die rede is waarom Suid-Afrikaners nie werk kry nie, of dat hul verwydering daardie poste vir iemand anders sal oopmaak. Wat ons wel beter kan meet, is wat gebeur wanneer daardie woede in beleid omgesit word."

(Illegal) immigrants, migration and immigration: What is next?

Sihle Khumalo Opinion 2026-06-25

"In 2008, I visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, where I not only witnessed documented accounts of the different atrocities, but also stood next to the mass grave where 250 000 bodies are interred."

Namibia: The Cassinga Massacre and Picasso’s Guernica

David Willers Opinion 2026-06-25

"Cassinga became another Guernica, and today it symbolises the sacrifices made during the liberation struggle, not only against South Africa but also against the Germans, who occupied Namibia as the colonial power until the First World War."

Black African migrants are not the reason South Africa is broken

Bhekisisa Mncube Opinion 2026-06-24

"This is where Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma enters the stage. She is not the cause of South Africa’s migration crisis. She is a symptom of our poverty of ideas."

What he knew, what he carried: Abdullah Ibrahim and the music of home

Heinrich Frans In memoriam 2026-06-18

"The world did not embrace Abdullah Ibrahim despite where he came from. It embraced him because he carried where he came from so completely."

Tsietsi Mashinini: Elusive hero of Soweto on Youth Day 2026 – a sociopolitical and biographical analysis

Mphuthumi Ntabeni Books and writers 2026-06-15

"Viewed in its entirety, Mathe’s biography is ultimately a meditation on memory, political ownership and historical erasure."

Artificial intelligence is not coming for your job: It is asking whether there was ever any humanity left in it to begin with

Daniel Botha Kunsmatige intelligensie | Artificial intelligence 2026-05-21

"We are no longer merely integrating technology into business. We are redesigning the architecture of human work itself."

History in the classroom: Why CAPS must look beyond ideology

Greg Kyle SA Skoleseminaar | Schools Seminar 2026-05-21

"Curriculum change is ongoing, and we cannot instantly label these campaigns as an immediate cause. But the proximity of a new history CAPS to a charged political movement does make it harder to view the revision within a purely pedagogical space."

When everything is a "deal", almost nothing is governed

Chris Heymans Opinion 2026-05-15

"Politics and international relations cannot function as a marketplace alone."

Will water become a stress test of municipal governance ahead of the elections?

Chris Heymans Opinion 2026-04-30

"Yet, large metros such as Johannesburg, eThekwini and Gqeberha continue to face severe wastewater management challenges, including failing treatment works and pollution. In Emfuleni in Gauteng, longstanding dysfunction in wastewater systems has caused chronic pollution of the Vaal River system and in urban areas, despite several national interventions. These are not isolated cases, but are symptomatic of the wider municipal system. Some municipalities – often supported by stronger technical capacity or regional water boards – perform relatively better, but these remain too few."

André du Toit: A tribute and a memory

Riaan de Villiers In memoriam 2026-04-20

"In this callous, dismaying age, it is yet another symptom of our collective amnesia: about our painful journey to becoming a democracy, laced with violence; about the failure of most Afrikaner intellectuals to challenge the apartheid order; and about the pioneering role played by those who did."

The fear of erasure: On South Africa’s history curriculum and the Afrikaner question

Mphuthumi Ntabeni SA Skoleseminaar | Schools Seminar 2026-04-15

"The bittereinder dying of typhoid in a Bloemfontein camp and the black child buried without a name in a Free State field are not statistics in a structural argument; they are the argument. A curriculum that cannot make a schoolchild feel the weight of those deaths in their own chest has failed at its most essential task."

On artificial intelligence, simulated worlds, humans and God: A conversation with ChatGPT

Frederik de Jager SêNet-briewe 2026-04-09

"If our universe is a simulation, its creators must know more than the simulated agents, particularly about the origin and structure of the system."

Western fear and its discontents

Mphuthumi Ntabeni Opinion 2026-04-08

"This essay concerns itself with a recurring structure in Western historical consciousness: the production of fear as a precondition for domination. Fear, in this tradition, is rarely spontaneous. It is cultivated, narrativised and subsequently moralised until it acquires the character of providence."

America and Israel could have lived with a nuclear-armed Iran

Eben Coetzee Opinion 2026-04-02

"But the case for launching Operation Epic Fury on the basis of fears that a nuclear-armed Iran is a uniquely dangerous prospect and an existential danger is flimsy at best; at worst, it is counterproductive and stands to undermine America’s position in the world. Unless the regime in Tehran changes, which without boots on the ground is unlikely to be the case, the Iranian regime will merely pick up where it left off by rebuilding its nuclear infrastructure and missile capabilities as evidenced by the Iranian response post-Operation Midnight Hammer."

Is John Steenhuisen South Africa’s next “Kortbroek”?

Jason Lloyd Opinion 2026-03-31

"Should he be removed from his ministerial post and fail to secure re-election to Parliament in 2029, it is conceivable – though speculative – that he might explore alternative political pathways ...."

Keynote: Why does my mother tongue matter?

Alta Engelbrecht Opinion 2026-03-06

Alta Vos, editor of LitNet Akademies (Opvoedkunde), was a guest speaker at the My Language Matters event on 27 February 2026 at CPUT: "LitNet has pioneered a multimodal and hyperlink context, where articles are enriched with links to related debates, multimedia and responses. This digital format allows Afrikaans scholarship to be interactive, layered and globally accessible, ensuring that Afrikaans researchers are part of a living, evolving conversation, rather than being isolated voices."

Ian von Memerty: Control, theatre and the seduction of self-deliverance – reflections on autonomy, dignity and the self

Jennifer Kestis Ferguson Opinion 2026-03-05

"This reflection emerged from a public conversation following the death of South African performer and writer Ian von Memerty, whose online series on 'self-deliverance' sparked wide debate about autonomy, ageing and dignity, questions that increasingly confront societies everywhere."

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