part of no part

Despite the numerous affirmations to the contrary, that I am indeed not living in a parallel world in which no means yes and yes means no; the horrible psychosis will not dissipate. Living in South Africa today is like living in the Matrix. Everything seems real, but nothing is.  A pool is not a pool; it is in fact a Fire-pool. A better life for all is in fact not really a better life for all, but a better life for some, consultation is in fact not a conversation between two parties, it is a directive from the powerful to the powerless. And so it goes. “ On and on, round and round, where it stops…nobody knows” , to borrow from the Steve Miller Band and their song Abracadabra. Indeed, if not magic, it must be the greatest show on earth. We can either accept that these obvious contradictions are as in the “The Matrix”, a generated reality of malicious machines, and consequently that this then is Descartes' First Meditation, or evil demon, a hypothesis that the perceived w...

Phakisa, from the Sesotho word meaning "hurry up", has been touted by government as the silver bullet that would “fast track the implementation of solutions on critical development issues.” But for Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA), representing 100 communities through 70 affiliated organisations, Operation Phakisa is just “a fast tracking of the killings of our people and continued environmental destruction as it puts profit before the people.” MACUA says the plan should be scrapped “because it keeps on feeding the excruciating pain felt by communities who bear the negative repercussions of mining every single day.” In a meeting held between the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), MACUA and ActionAid South Africa (AASA) recently, to consider how communities could participate in the Phakisa project, the DPME reiterated that the process was aimed at bringing together an “alliance of the willing” to focus on the “impleme...