”We greet you, Comrades, in the struggle for better education.” The invitation from the South African Union of Student Representative Councils (SAU-SRC) reeked of serious leftist student politics. And the odour didn’t seem too pleasing to the SRCs of a number of universities. Only half the 22 higher education institutions in the country made it to the 10th annual meeting of the SAU-SRC last weekend.
Former Mail & Guardian journalist Farouk Chothia and his Cameroonian colleague Ange Ngu Thomas were still under house arrest in Limbe, Cameroon, on Thursday. Chothia, a producer for the BBC, was detained on Sunday together with BBC reporter Ngu Thomas on accusations of spying.
Some years ago Nelson Mandela inadvertently flattered me by seeming to act on a suggestion I had made. I had written an editorial for the Mail & Guardian, arguing that he should stand down as president after serving just one term, instead of the two allowed by the constitution.