part of no part

As South Africa and the rest of the world head to the climate negotiations in Paris next week to “blow more hot air”, our government needs to acknowledge that without solving the social and environmental crises at the local level, , we cannot even begin to push a progressive climate agenda at the international level. Until the reservoirs started running dry over the last couple of weeks, most South Africans paid scant attention to the fact that South Africa is a water-stressed country. South Africa only receives half the global average rain fall. As our rainfall is not distributed evenly over the entire country, the bulk of the rain occurs in the eastern parts of the country leaving the western regions much drier. Being a water-stressed country, the way we utilise our limited resources has always been a top priority for government and it has spent impressive amounts on projects that would “ ensure the country maintains a sustainable water supply. ” The Mega projects inclu...

In the villages on the outskirts of Mokopane in Limpopo, the villages in the Mapela/Langa tribal area have been the victims of large scale corporate mining by Anglo Platinum for over 50 years.  In 2008 ActionAid South Africa (AASA) released a report entitled Precious Metal, which detailed a range of effects on the surrounding villagers which was described in the report as potential human rights abuses. AngloPlat vehemently denied the claims by AASA.  In 2015 AASA asked the Society Work and Development Institute (SWOP) from the University of Witwatersrand to research the impacts on the community 7 years after our first report was released. What they found confirmed the 2008 report and more shockingly the unchanged reality of the community who live in the shadows of one of the most profitable Platinum mines in the world.  Between 2008 and its half year report in 2015, AngloPlatinum has recorded R29.3 Billion in profits, yet what the report finds among a hos...

In the early hours of Monday 31 August 2015, hundreds of residents took to the streets and began what was to become a two weeks long protest march. For two weeks residents blockaded the roads and disrupted the everyday rhythm of their exploitation and oppression.  The target, AngloPlatinum,  who has for decades been at the centre of violating their Right to Food, their Right to Water, their Right to Housing and their Right to a Healthy Environment. As a result, many workers at the Mogalakwena mine could not report for work.  Protesters burnt down and vandalised a part of the Mapela traditional authority offices, the chiefs’ house and the community development infrastructure provided by the mine, including the sports stadium and the agricultural project at Ga-Chaba. Many of the protesters rarely visited their homes during the strike. They sang and demonstrated on the streets day and night. Women cooked meals along the road for everyone. Villagers put together s...

Yesterday`s march in Pretoria, besides the less than spectacular turnout, was marked by a separation between the people and the VIP`s I am told. The stage was separate from the people and some "bigwigs" were walking around with VIP passes hanging around their necks. Have we learnt nothing? It is in the first instance this division between the "masses" and their leaders that births the mistaken notion that the leadership is somehow more intelligent, more equal and more deserving than the masses. It is this separation that passes power to a leadership that becomes so removed from the people they are meant to represent, that they instead become the antithesis of democracy. Democracy, or rather the lack thereof and corruption are deeply interlinked as I pointed out previously . This unholy fascination with VIP`s and elites, even within the movements of the left are essentially a part of what Karl Marx calls “ the democratic swindle ”. The democratic ...

If the right and the left can find sufficient common ground to coalesce around a single issue, as they are apparently doing with the Unite Against Corruption (UAC) march, then one would surely be forgiven if one were to come the conclusion that the centre is rotten to the core. Enough so to bring together disparate forces against a single contradiction that looms so overwhelmingly in the public conscience that they could put aside their own natural oppositions to unite in opposition to the rotten core.  But does the convergence of the left and the right provide an alternative? Well yes and no. No, because such a convergence is not manageable in the long term and can only be short-lived and tactical. It`s politically a non-starter. Yet this tactic has been employed in various forms and in varying degrees of success across the history of time. And Yes, because it brings people on to the streets. Change does not come about in the luxury of our armchairs and the st...

This is My Perspective: There is little doubt in my mind today that Joe had been the kernel force that gathered the momentum of the legend that Bonteheuwel has become in ANC political folklore. Bonteheuwel`s rich history of activism found its Shangri-La in the shadows of Joe`s presence. The 1980`s were turbulent times. The energy that surged through black civil society had reached breakout point and young people all across the country were swept up in the urgency and promise of the moment. I entered the feared streets of Bonteheuwel as a 15 year old fresh from leading a student rebellion at a Mitchells Plain School. Our efforts led to the election of an SRC and our school joining others in defying the Apartheid regime.  Through a twist of fate my family got the opportunity to move from Tafelsig to Bonteheuwel just as the police were closing in on me. So there I was, a stranger in strange world. But it wasn’t long before the student leadership of Bonteheuwel ...

With the community of Ga-Mapela, who are affected by the AngloPlats Mogalakwena mine, in a state of uprising, the temptation to accept ready made answers to a decades long reality of dispossession and exclusion is somewhat understandable but wholly inadequate. The response from Anglo Platinum to the outpouring of rage and anger by the youth of the surrounding villages, has been to narrow the focus of news reports and public dialogue to one of divisions within the community and unreasonable demands of the youth. The reality is far more complex and has a history which stretches back to 1991 when Anglo first established an operation in the area. This particular mine has since stood out more for its record profitability than its impact on the local community. From the outset, the communities, which today surround the most profitable platinum mine in the world, were in conflict with the mine. In 2003 seven thousand residents of Ga-Pila were forcibly removed to make way for t...

If the intention of the Mining Industry Growth and Development Task Team was to save jobs, or heaven forbid, create jobs, then the Tripartite Agreement reached between the exclusive club of the Chamber of Mines, Government and NUM has failed on all accounts. A couple of weeks ago I warned that the current “crises” imposed on us, while certainly part of the global cyclical downturn, will more likely be used as leverage to further protect the profits of shareholders while transferring the social costs to the South African public. The Ten Point Plan has certainly not produced any evidence to suggest that this analysis is unwarranted. In fact it confirms that the measures introduced with much fanfare, and trumpeted in the Media as a “welcome” attempt to “save” the industry, is little less than an expensive effort to hoodwink the public. Despite a few contrarian views, most economists, based on the Keynesian models of full employment, will agree that the path to job creation...

According to South African History Online , Ruth First was a “Marxist with a wide internationalist perspective…She was central to debates within the Johannesburg Discussion Club, which led to the formation of the underground South African Communist Party (SACP) (of which First was a member). She had a brilliant intellect and did not suffer fools gladly. Her sharp criticism and her impatience with bluster earned her enemies, and she was often feared in political debate. However, she was not dogmatic. First’s willingness to take up a position which she considered to be just, was not always welcomed within the ANC or SACP.” The Ruth First Memorial Lecture held last Monday at the University of Witwatersrand, aimed to “commemorate her contribution to critical, socially-engaged writing and research.” However, it was disturbing to see how this critical Marxist voice, who spoke out against the systemic inequalities that underpins the global system of capitalism, was turned into a self-...