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Mirroring the past: At times, the actors in Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept step out of their roles entirely, debating the material they are performing, questioning its meaning or even its validity. It’s here that the play’s meta-theatrical dimension comes into focus. Photo: Thandile Zwebanzi

What does it mean to forgive? A play asks, 30 years after the TRC

Drawing from archives and lived experience, the international production probes the emotional and political complexities of reconciliation in a fractured world

Looking to the future: Nkosinathi Biko (left) heads the committee that will steer the National Dialogue. He and Samora Biko (right) are the sons of Steve Biko. Photo: GCIS

‘National Dialogue is no talk shop,’ organisers say

But the Democratic Alliance has said it will boycott the dialogue that will take place over nine months, calling it a waste of time and money

South Africans have formed a common state nationalism quite fast despite socio-economic differences and cleavages. (Photo by Frennie Shivambu/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Is South Africa a nation?

There is a need for deliberate, inclusive strategies to bridge ethnic and racial cleavages and foster a more equitable and unified national identity

Members of the ANC give testimony in Cape Town about human rights abuses committed during apartheid. (File photograph by Gallo Images/ Oryx Media Archive).

Time for nation building, not reconciliation

South Africa today needs justice in many different forms and must deliver real political power to the people, which requires new trade-offs and political rules and set new norms

The 2021 July riots were the most widespread, coordinated, and visible instance of looting in South Africa.

The effects of the recent looting on South Africa’s young democracy

Rebuilding is crucial, but democracies cannot allow themselves to be held to ransom by the destruction of anarchists in dictating where public funds should be spent

Many people lack reliable electricity, clean water and adequate housing. When the state fails to provide these services, rights such as dignity, equality and access to healthcare are undermined.
(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

An inconvenient truth: Virus presents symptoms of socio-economic injustice

The speed at which substantial wealth was given shows that investment in transformation and justice does not enjoy the same humanitarian response

It is true that in the African continent, ethnicity is a dreaded term because of the continent’s experience with ethnicity- or tribe-based inter-group animosities and conflicts that, in some countries, morphed into genocides.
(Zinyange Auntony/AFP)

Ethnic consciousness should not threaten African nation-building

Ethnic identity can be harnessed to strengthen national identity — and this can foster a continental-based African identity