Cliff and Steenhuisen are wrong. Here’s why race matters in South Africa
/ 26 October 2021

Cliff and Steenhuisen are wrong. Here’s why race matters in South Africa

Both the podcast host and the leader of the Democratic Alliance believe in a toothless non-racialism that ignores the historical foundation of racism and the pain it inflicts in the present

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/ 27 May 2008

Mbeki’s rule in limbo as townships burn

President Thabo Mbeki faces an uphill battle to remain politically relevant in his last year in office after his failure to contain an eruption of violence that has killed dozens of foreign workers in South Africa. Mbeki was already under fire for failing to prevent a crippling power shortage when mobs went on the rampage this month.

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/ 21 May 2008

‘What kind of nation are we building?’

The South African government is under growing pressure to send troops into Johannesburg’s townships for the first time since the apartheid era as African immigrants continued to flee a wave of killings and violence against foreigners. Several people were killed overnight including two men, believed to be Mozambican miners, who were beaten to death as mobs moved through townships.

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/ 20 May 2008

Govt blamed for violence ‘tinderbox’

As police announced the launch of "specialised units" to combat the deadly xenophobic violence in Gauteng and the National Intelligence Agency confirmed that it was probing the violence, the government on Tuesday stood accused of serious policy failures that "created a tinderbox of unmet expectations which exploded in Alexandra".

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/ 20 May 2008

SA moves to quell xenophobic attacks

South Africa’s police and the African National Congress (ANC) intensified efforts on Tuesday to quell anti-foreigner violence that has killed at least 24 people and sent thousands of African immigrants into refugee shelters. Police have struggled for over a week to end the violent attacks on foreigners.

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/ 9 March 2008

Zuma stakes claim as president for the poor

Outside Luthuli House, yellow posters beg South Africans to save power. In the lobby of the African National Congress headquarters, a veteran of the struggle against apartheid is asking to see ”Baba”. The old man does not have electricity and would like to put his case to the party president. A receptionist shakes her head: ”He comes often.”

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/ 27 February 2008

Racist video slammed as ‘barbaric’

A racist video — featuring University of the Free State employees on their knees eating food that had been urinated upon — was widely condemned by various institutions and political parties on Wednesday. The video, made by members of the Reitz men’s residence on the Bloemfontein campus, came to the attention of the public on Tuesday.

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/ 7 February 2008

Education DG criticised in school-safety row

The director general in the Department of Education is in denial about a crisis in the school system, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Thursday. This comes after Duncan Hindle on Wednesday ”attacked” the SAIRR for its statements highlighting the fact that most South African children do not feel safe at school.

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/ 5 February 2008

SA schools ‘are downright dangerous’

South African schools are the most dangerous in the world, with only 23% of pupils saying they feel safe at school, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Tuesday. Spokesperson for SAIRR Thomas Blaser said a Progress in International Reading Literacy study had ranked South Africa last in terms of school safety.

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/ 30 November 2007

Zille: Aids ‘a crisis of enormous proportions’

The Aids crisis, already one of enormous proportions, is forecast to get even bigger, says Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille. ”Though a slight decline was experienced this year, analysts still predict South Africa’s HIV infection rate to increase from its current 10% to 18% by 2025,” she warned in her weekly online newsletter, SA Today, on Friday.

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/ 16 November 2007

Mbeki hits back on poverty claim

Writing in his weekly newsletter on the African National Congress website, President Thabo Mbeki on Friday railed against the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) for making ”the startling claim” that more South Africans are now poorer than they were in 1996. The SAIRR, in turn, defended itself in a statement released later in the day.