Opinion

Andile Mngxitama’s inconsistency and the politics of denigration and opportunism

I remain close to the places where ordinary black life meets the police, the farmer, the mine and the state face to face. That ground has no patience for fashionable radicalism. That ground exposes every counterfeit. Speaking from the safety of a donor-funded human rights NGO is ‘Butlerism’ on steroids. So is abandoning the Black Land First formation for the security of a career in Parliament

Is state capture metamorphosing into higher education capture?

Is state capture metamorphosing into higher education capture?

For all we know, the higher education sector might even have some senior managers who aid and abet institutional capture, just like the Madlanga Commission has outed some high-ranking police officers alleged to have facilitated police capture

Resourcing African agency: A practical agenda for the continent’s future

Resourcing African agency: A practical agenda for the continent’s future

This influence goes beyond funding. It shows up in how systems for decision-making are designed, how public policies are shaped and even who sits at the table. Over time, this creates a situation where African initiatives remain African in name but are partly shaped by external actors in how they function

Zimbabwe’s jarring, phantom reform  

Zimbabwe’s jarring, phantom reform  

Presidential terms are to be extended to seven years, with Mnangagwa’s current tenure lengthened by two, while parliament and local government terms are similarly prolonged

The hidden hoaxer class outed

The hidden hoaxer class outed

Political entrepreneurs, while integrated and integral to both sides, are in the unique position in which they are neither. accountable to an electoral constituency nor the ground soldiers pulling triggers and exchanging envelopes

Becoming Umwana – a son

Becoming Umwana – a son

In the ruins of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Nelson Gashagaza survived by becoming someone else’s child. In this two-part series as Rwanda commemorates Kwibuka32, he tells a personal story on a performed kinship, ordinary horror and the meaning of belonging