Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
sharpeville massacrelatest news & developments
Renaldo Gouws.

COLUMN: Cabanac and Gouws, racism’s Distruction Boyz

The pod bros will revive their mission to kill non-racialism and feed it to the pigs

Free at last: The period from1994 to 2008 was an era of rethinking and reimagining South Africa, and constructing practical programmes to dismantle apartheid architecture.  Photo: David Turnley/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images

Effective governance crucial for sustaining South Africa’s democracy

The nation is in a far better place than it was when apartheid ended. But what is also true is multiple spheres of government struggle to deal with societal problems and service…

Wounded people lie in the street on March 21, 1960 in Sharpeville, where security forces massacred 67 protesters. In 1960, police shot 69 black people in the Sharpeville township, south of Johannesburg, during a protest against pass laws, which restricted black people’s movement. (STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

Ubuntu and a human rights culture remains our lodestar

Although much has been achieved in 30 years of democracy, the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre reminds us that we must strive to ensure all people’s rights are achieved

Mbhela won for his artwork Iphasi nesiphesheli, which is part of the series titled Umlando uyaziphinda, meaning, “history repeats itself”. Photo: Supplied

Iphasi nesiphesheli, a visual piece by Mondli Bhele, wins this year’s Sasol New Signatures art competition

Striking collage using found fabrics and a familiar scene shows how ‘history repeats itself’ and that we can learn from it and overcome its brutal lessons

The shadow of a lynching set against a crowd of people; the image was created and distributed by the NAACP, c. 1930s. The writer argues that recent, vigilante-led killings in South Africa echo the practice. (Everett Historical)

Hashtags bear a strange fruit: The visual terror of the #PhoenixMassacre

As vigilante groups stepped in to ‘protect’ their property and families, the visual spectacle of death took on a sinister pleasure in some quarters, with Black lives bearing the…

Free at last: ANC struggle stalwarts (from left) Raymond Mhlaba, Oscar Mpetha, Andrew Mlangeni, early life, which were Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Elias Motsoaledi and Wilton Mkwayi after their release from prison in 1989. (Photo: Sunday Times/Raymond Preston/Gallo)

Comrade Andrew Mlangeni was the embodiment of service

Kgalema Motlanthe paid tribute to ANC struggle stalwart Andrew Mlangeni, who died on Tuesday, at his 95th birthday celebrations last month

Freedom fighter Denis Goldberg talks to the media at Liliesleaf Farm, the apartheid-era hideout for Nelson Mandela and freedom fighters in Johannesburg, on July 11, 2013 in Rivonia, South Africa. It is 50 years since the hideout was raided by police on July 11, 1963. The farm was the secret nerve centre for the Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC and the Congress Alliance. Police interrupted a meeting of Operation Mayibuye, a plan to overthrow the Apartheid government. The raid by police led to the arrest of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki and Denis Goldberg, who were convicted through the infamous Rivonia Trial and most were sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island.  (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A full life, well lived

Denis Goldberg was a forthcoming, funny, angry, brutally honest and impressive man who never stopped fighting for what he believed in

Working conditions, personal circumstances and the ‘militaristic manner’ in which SAPS is managed have a detrimental effect on mental health, say experts. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

The rule of law in times of crisis: Covid-19 and the state of disaster

Under a state of national disaster, some rights may be suspended. But it is critical to remember that the Constitution itself is not suspended

Politically spiritual: Robert Sobukwe believed that politics is an ethical duty and that personal transformation is required to produce ethical leaders. (Robben Island/Mayibuye Archives)

Human Rights Day: South Africa continues to neglect the legacy of Robert Sobukwe

The memory of the influential former leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress has been shunted to the margins in the country’s sham democracy

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)

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

A man seems to be praying, singing or conducting a band (above). His outfit blends into an infinite background that appears to suspend him in a fantastical world. (Tsepo Gumbi)

Sharpeville is much more than the site of a massacre

Tsepo Gumbi’s photographs bring a more complex view of a place that has been so singularly defined as to be unknowable

A new lens: Re-Imagining Sharpeville explores contemporary themes and subjects overshadowed by the historical Sharpeville. (Tsepo Gumbi)

The Portfolio: Tsepo Gumbi

With the Sharpeville massacre in mind, Kwanele Sosibo takes a look at how Tsepo Gumbi’s collection of photographs are a necessary intervention

EFF leader Julius Malema. Photo by Delwyn Verasamy/M&G

EFF tackles apartheid legislation

While the ANC in Parliament found itself defending the presence of FW de Klerk at the State of the Nation address last week, the government was also — in court this time —…

Friends of Mama Sobukwe celebrate with her upon her release from detention

Veronica Sobukwe’s guiding ethos

Robert Sobukwe’s wife was an activist, and she looked after the children while he was incarcerated

The Moturu kramat is a sacred site for Muslims on Robben Island, built in 1969 to commemorate Sayed Adurohman Moturu. (Gallo Images / The Times / Anton Scholt)

Robben Island bones require a deeper dig

It has more than a 500-year history as a trading post, a leper colony and an island had also been used to house banished religious leaders.

Why is South Africa not addressing the crimes against humanity committed by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an? (Getty Images)

South Africa needs to take a position on the plight of the Turks under Erdoğan

The country’s media and NGOs can also play a role in restoring human rights in Turkey

An ANC election campaign poster lies in the rubbish in Sharpeville. (Ihsaan Haffejee/M&G)

Splurge does little for Sharpeville

Residents are angry that commemorating the massacre has not resulted in a better life for them

Lesetja Kganyago said the central bank was looking at four 25 basis points hikes by the end of 2020. This would bring the repo rate to 7.5% by the end of 2020. (Bloomberg)

Thank you eternally, Mme Sobukwe

In next week’s edition of Friday a tribute to yet another woman who should not have suffered will honour the life of Mme Sobukwe.

History textbooks suggest that in 1994 when formal apartheid and racial exclusion ended

The way history is taught in South Africa is ahistorical ― and that’s a problem

History needs to focus on historical consciousness if students are to become capable of dealing with South Africa’s social problems

(Shutterstock)

Remembering South Africa’s catastrophe: The 1948 poll that heralded apartheid

Apartheid has been removed from the statute books for almost three decades. But a de facto apartheid endures both economically and socially