Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
jan smutslatest news & developments
BOOKS ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA

A tale of two statesmen: Smuts, Mandela and the making of South Africa

An examination of how Jan Smuts and Nelson Mandela navigated the challenges of their eras

  • Roger Southall
12 min read
Powerful plan: Saldanha Steel was originally formed as a partnership between Iscor and the Industrial Development Corporation and was arranged by Jan Smuts, below. Photo (above) : Dori Moreno
ELECTRICITY

Clear vision led SA’s industrial revolution

Lessons from when Jan Smuts drove the industrialisation of South Africa in the form of electricity and steel to benefit an elite community

  • Mzukisi Qobo
7 min read
The statue of Cecil Rhodes waits to be removed from University of Cape Town on April 9, 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa. The statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes was removed from the University of Cape Town as a result of a month long protest by students citing the statue “great symbolic power” which glorified someone “who exploited black labour and stole land from indigenous people”. (Charlie Shoemaker/Getty Images)
CAPE TOWN

Pressure to remove colonial relics grows

This week, the Black People’s National Crisis Committee (BPNCC) said it would intensify protest if activists are not listened to.

  • Lester Kiewit
3 min read
South Africa has an awkward history with human rights, to put it mildly. But a renewed recognition of the revolutionary potential of human rights to bring about profound changes in society is long overdue. (Marco Longari/AFP)
CECIL JOHN RHODES

Human Rights Day reminds us of our progress and failures

The history of human rights in South Africa is complex, not least because the removal of oppression has not equated to substantive liberation

  • Mikhail Moosa
7 min read
Jan Smuts won the vote to join the war against the Nazi.
JAN SMUTS

Enigmatic Jan Smuts still elusive in new biography

The latest Jan Smuts biography explores but does not fully explain the terrible blots in his otherwise brilliant career.

  • Willis Nigel
  • Willis Nigel Guest Author
8 min read
APARTHEID STRUGGLE

The centenary of a bonfire

The seeds of a non-racial struggle and the adoption of a policy of non-discrimination were sown by Gandhi’s approach.

  • Staff Reporter
7 min read
DONALD TRAMP

A street person named Desire

This is how I came to fall in love with a homeless person. My friend Sabelo has a mighty mane of dreadlocks and an ego so large he can barely get his Rasta shirt on, but he’s a…

  • Lev David
4 min read
CAPE TOWN

Mbeki: Crime a symptom of ‘rapacious individualism’

The prevalence of corruption and other forms of crime in South Africa reflected a society that had embraced a culture of individualism, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday.…

  • Staff Reporter
1 min read
CHARLES VAN ONSELEN

Lord of the flies

Shaun de Waal reviews Charles van Onselen’s new book The Fox and the Flies: The World of Joseph Silver, Racketeer and Psychopath

  • Shaun De Waal
5 min read