Litnet

"With Lammy’s help, Sir Keir could wean Pretoria off its corrosive dependency relationship with Vladimir Putin. The Labour Party’s win could have very positive implications for the new Government of National Unity in South Africa."

"This, then, is to invite you to get to know us – beyond the sweetheart entities that your predecessors have created and imposed on us as our representatives, beyond the gatkruipers dependent on state patronage for their lifestyles – to listen and to hear us before making big pronouncements about us or for us."

"This presents you with an important entry point at the outset of your new assignment, demystifying the notion that only new infrastructure can solve the problems of limited access."

"Colonel Jan Breytenbach, who has died peacefully in bed in his nineties, was arguably South Africa’s finest soldier in the latter half of the 20th century."

"Gaza has become the centre of the universe, the same way Soweto was the centre of the universe." A book discussion and video interview with Haidar Eid, author and professor in postcolonial studies and postmodern literature at al-Aqsa University, Gaza City.

"As with other cases in the 'new' South Africa, where the state failed, the private sector moved in to repair damages. Today, an integrated support structure provides services to white and black farmers, and a number of joint venture projects continue the land reform programme."

"My guess is that the growing radicalism from the left will gain momentum, especially if things don’t get better. As it is now, they too are at sixes and sevens and have no workable solutions. Anger at the failures of the ANC and the betrayal of the revolutionary mandate is their only political fund. They will probably take the coming few years to unite, organise and consolidate before coming to take yet another bite out of the sinking leviathan."

"Put differently, Zuma revived Buthelezi’s pre-1994 messaging in 2023 with a blend of false pro-black advocacy, myopic rule-by-chiefs nonsense, and promises to wannabe politicians and tenderpreneurs of a return to rent-seeking practices reminiscent of the Gupta era."

"The decision that charts our collective future in South Africa is now in the hands of politicians. This frightens me."

"If an essay is good, one distrusts it straight away. I did not award a single distinction."

"It would be easy in South Africa today, preoccupied as it is with the result of its own parliamentary election, to overlook the importance of the Allied D-Day landings of 6 June 1944, which liberated the world from the Nazi scourge. But that would be a mistake."

"Crucially, graduates are anticipated to embody critical thinking skills, and so actively contribute to societal development and progress. Higher education plays a vital role in cultivating virtues such as respect, resilience, dignity, inclusivity and gender equality, thereby fostering a constructive platform for public discourse. Universities serve as a safeguard against crude, anti-democratic rhetoric."

"Although Schreiner’s ideas about the place of women, the stratified nature of their labour, constantly developed over the course of her life, she evidently has a blind spot in her letters about the non-white servants in her close circle."

"This note will address these developments in terms of 'Winners' and 'Losers', and of course we must begin with the first of the election’s big stories, the travails of the ANC."

"Perhaps the country most deeply affected by the ICC warrants, other than Israel itself, would be the USA. While itself not an ICC states party, US criticism of the Palestine case – in light of its previous support for the ICC warrants against Putin and Bashir, among others – exposes not only its double standards, but the shallowness of its much-touted moral compass."

"But suddenly the agenda has become denser and more complex. International issues, bad old South African racial politics, and opportunistic political engineering have all made an appearance. So let’s pinpoint some of the key issues."

"In examining the legal framework surrounding self-defence, it is evident that a state cannot assert this right when facing a threat from an armed group within an occupied territory, especially where that territory is kept under belligerent occupation."

"As is often the case with any bureaucratised system, the human is supplanted by numerical representation. For healthcare, one needs money." Emelia Steenekamp writes about her experience of private and public healthcare in South Africa, Canada and South Korea.

"As an author, I am constantly asked for PDF versions of my books. Sure, go ahead and help yourself; I mean, it’s not like I paid a proofreader, paid a designer and sourced the rights to use the artwork on the covers. Sure, go ahead and have a PDF copy on WhatsApp. And cast it as far as mistletoe throughout your entire village, so everyone can read my book while I never benefit a dime off it."

"Not only does Zuma challenge the ANC politically, but he also claims its heritage."