When scores of women came out with their personal accounts of abductions and sometimes rape at the hands of a gang of violent taxi drivers
OPINION
Someone should have warned us. When we read that the rand was 12.30 to the dollar and started throwing around phrases such as “the mighty rand” and “strongest in two years”, somebody should have thrown us a lifeline and snapped us out of our premature air punches. That bit of news was as good as fake because, come Monday morning, the markets smelt that President Jacob Zuma was in the mood to reshuffle his Cabinet again. It’s all been downhill ever since. Looking back, we should have wanted more for ourselves. Avocados and bananas are still overpriced, and so is education.
Premium Black Coffee
Times may be trying but aren’t we lucky that we are still able to stake a claim on Black Coffee? The BET award-winning DJ is surely our most valuable player, having clocked yet another top-end collaboration with a huge international act. He features on none other than Drake’s newly released album, More Life. The most talked-about hip-hop album debuted only a week ago and Black Coffee is the mastermind behind the track, Get It Together, an adaptation of his 2008 song, Superman.
But wait, there’s more. Having nurtured a friendship with Bad Boy records mogul P Diddy, the DJ is doing more than just rubbing shoulders. He is to be one of the producers on what’s touted to be the rap legend’s last album. Now, here’s a question: If Black Coffee can do his bit to strengthen the rand, why can’t Zuma?
Fashion Week underwhelms
Getting an invite to Fashion Week used to be a much bigger deal than it now is. It still means the world to lovers of fashion, but the 10th
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town told a different story. The planning is said to have been poor. But some blamed it on the bad weather, which resulted in the event’s last few days having to be postponed for later in April. Has the fashion week lost its lustre?
Elle New Talent 2010 winner Cleo Droomer brought the heat with his collection of savvy and smart pieces that you wanted to grab right off the runway and wear.
His show was a much-needed beacon of light after Gavin Rajah’s 60-look affair. It seems Rajah is still paying for the plagiarism offence of not so long ago. Industry fave David Tlale was late to the show, but pulled out all the glamorous stops for the Felicia Mabuza-Suttle in the crowd as well as the rest.
Of feminisms and intersection
March 31 marks International Transgender Day of Visibility. The day was first celebrated in 2010 and was the brainchild of Rachel Crandall, who heads up Transgender Michigan. It celebrates and raises awareness of the transgender community. It comes soon after author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie came under fire for her controversial comments.
When asked about the inclusion of transgender women in the feminist movement, Adichie, although drawing flawed biological assumptions about transgender women, spoke about her understanding of the male privilege space transgender women occupy.
The trans community was rightly offended by a feminist icon whose language excluded their reality. Intersectionality is tough as far as interrogating black feminisms goes. Because your privilege isn’t my privilege isn’t a transwoman’s privilege. It becomes a slippery slope to even talk about privilege in the space of black feminisms as neither has achieved true political power. That said, we can all be one another’s community.
Taxi rape horror story
When scores of women came out with their personal accounts of abductions and sometimes rape at the hands of a gang of violent taxi drivers, our hearts sank and fear took hold in the face of “predatory black masculinities”, as the Economic Freedom Fighters’ Mbuyiseni Ndlozi put it.
Arrests have been made but this is simply not enough. These stories are a reality that affects us all; they are not just the curse of those on the margins of society, who fall outside the safety net. What will it take to rid South Africa of its rape culture?
RIP Uncle Kathy
The nation is gripped by the death of yet another public figure. Struggle stalwart and Rivonia Trialist Ahmed Kathrada died in the early hours of Tuesday morning after a brief illness. A comrade of late greats Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, he joins our other venerated leaders and, in doing so, takes with him a monumental part of our history. May he forever live on in our collective imagination.