Since April this year, the African National Congress Youth League and trade union Solidarity have been discussing whether the youth should be exempt from affirmative action. Here, two youth leaders — Solidarity’s Dirk Hermann and the league’s Zizi Kodwa — debate whether affirmative action should apply to those born after 1994.
"The majority of South Africans, I think, live a very mimicked lifestyle." Kwanele Sosibo speaks to artistic young people at a Jo’burg inner-city art gallery about the possibilities that being South African holds, and wonders whether the youth have arrived at a common identity 14 years after the advent of democracy.
Most university students today are concerned about their individual economic freedom. Graduates no longer root for the preservation of a national culture founded on the principles of ubuntu and those enshrined in the Freedom Charter. Does "The people shall share" ring a bell?
Raenette Taljaard, Tshilidzi Marwala, Stuart Wilson, Zandile Mciza, Karin Jacobs, Mamokgethi Setati and Carol Simon.
Now here’s a publication to warm our mid-winter hearts. Here are 100-and-something young South Africans you have to take to lunch. And if not to lunch, certainly to have in your sights and on your Rolodexes. This is the second year of our publication and it grows from strength to strength.
Nikiwe Bikitsha, Regan Thaw, Bongani B Nxumalo, Mandy Wiener, Uveka Rangappa, Nontyatyambo Petros, Koketso Sachane, Redi Direko, Unathi Batyashe-Fillis, Thomas Sipho Mlambo, Africa Melane, Siki Mgabadeli, Tsepiso Makwetla, Damon Stapleton and Grant Nash.
"Say <i>amakwerrre-kwerrre</i>," I was told by a domestic worker I interviewed. As if by rolling my tongue, her correction of my pronunciation would enable me to express the requisite hatred and anger towards foreigners. This is the unthinking reality that confronts thousands of refugees who flee to South Africa in the hope of attaining a better life for themselves.
With 700 000 public servants on strike for the second week and the strike toll mounting, the government is considering the unilateral implementation of its pay offer. A senior government official, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Mail & Guardian this week that top government leaders, including President Thabo Mbeki, were becoming angry and impatient about the prolonged dispute.
Just for fun, I think I will write up a document titled Special Blue Hamster Consolidated Surveillance Report and fax it to media and trade unions. It will say something along these lines: Gauteng’s monorail project is really a ploy by a syndicate of Malaysian bookmakers to fund the ANC leadership bid of one of the candidates, codenamed X, writes Franz Krüger.
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