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Big brother’s watching: A woman walks past surveillance cameras in Akto, in China’s Xinjiang region. China is accused of genocide against the Uyghur people in the region. But the fear of surveillance is trumped by anger at being surveilled, according to the author. Photo: Greg Baker/AFP

How state surveillance can strengthen citizen dissent

Authoritarian regimes use spying to deter protest. But this can encourage people to stand up for what they believe in

Mail & Gaurdian

Editorial: Forget the politicians, you are the biggest loser

We will all bear the brunt of a political landscape that is less about governing and more about the satisfaction of personal interests and vindictive opposition

Scathing critique: Academic and author Mahmood Mamdani’s new book, Neither Settler nor Native, is a haunting meditation on the deadly political rituals and fires of the ‘politicisation’ of cultural and ethnic identity. (Photo: Chloe Aftel)

Review: Mahmood Mamdani on the ‘non-national’ state

Mahmood Mamdani’s latest book, ‘Neither Settler nor Native’ asks a political question: Rights for whom?

Political elites, not foreigners, are to blame for South Africa’s problems

What if we told foreigners to voetsek? We have fallen victim to the illusion of scarcity. And we are led to wrongly believe immigrants are a threat

The killings of two council workers at the Amathole district municipality appear to be linked to tender fraud and corruption. (Paul Botes/M&G)

Covid-19 pandemic offers municipalities rare opportunity to restore trust

Local government and councillors have largely failed to deliver services and on their mandate because of a lack of will to do their jobs, corruption and a shortage of people with…

‘Municipalities should also provide administrative and other support, including for the training of ward committee members,’ writes Paul Kariuki. (Paul Botes/M&G)

The people versus the electoral system

Unelected appointees will always answer to their political party bosses and not to the electorate.

Fed up residents of Rosettenville

JHB arson spree: Vigilantism, claims of xenophobia and a sleeping cop at a brothel

Rosettenville residents say houses were burnt because of police inaction on crime allegations.

Transformation re-defined

Professor Herman van Schalkwyk comments that transformation in South Africa influences all citizens. But, what exactly is transformation?

Playing a crucial role in democracy

Citizens have a right to communicate with their representatives, but also need to engage in democracy, argues <b>Siyabonga Memela</b>.