Litnet

"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 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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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 ...."

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."

"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."

"But to acknowledge complexity is not to erase hierarchy. Staphorst suggests that my argument assumes identity is fixed. It does not. Identity is layered, contested and always in motion."

"We don’t know what violence, what conquest, what inter-'indigenous' strife lies behind the compound name !kam-dhabu. To assume it speaks of a glorious past and the reclamation of an 'indigenous identity' is not only unfounded, but offensively naïve."

"Yes, as a people of South Africa, we still need to have very open, frank conversations instead of hiding behind broad terms like 'rainbow nation', 'nation building' and 'social cohesion', etc."

"For formerly colonised peoples, restoring indigenous names is not nostalgia; it is epistemic independence. It declares: We are not what conquest called us."

"South Africa’s 2026 municipal elections are likely to take place in the last quarter of the year. Much will still be written, said and – annoyingly – also warped, over the course of the year. Let us then reflect briefly on what South Africans might expect and want to consider as the elections loom – especially on service delivery, fiscal sustainability, broader political change, and governance and accountability, or the lack thereof."

"He never wanted to hear the same phrase played the same way. It always had to be different, sometimes even shockingly different, but never boring."

"On 6 February 2026 Gayton McKenzie, minister of sport, arts and culture, published a declaration indicating that more towns in the Eastern Cape would be renamed. We have created a link to an online portal for people to object to the changes."

Under the theme "Local Government Elections 2026 – Chances & Challenges for Municipalities to Fulfil their Constitutional Mandate" the event will explore key institutional, administrative and political dimensions of local governance ahead of the 2026 local elections.

"The main point is that it is exactly the sort of potential crisis that may explode, as the impression gains ground that the rules-based system under the UN and other bodies is impotent and toothless."

"Here we are, thirty-two years into our so-called non-racial, non-sexist democracy premised on human rights that are enshrined in our Constitution, and we have the minister responsible for arts and culture essentially banning an artist from participating in the Venice Biennial, because in his view, her work does not contribute to social cohesion in the country."

"Can AI imitate God? What is lost when one seeks guidance from a machine?" This video overview of an accredited LitNet Akademies (Godsdienswetenskappe) article by Anné Verhoef is generated by AI.

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