The battle for Mangaung will be lost and won on different fronts, as was the case at Polokwane. Astute political observer Aubrey Matshiqi takes a sharp look at the various players, from the intelligence community to the courts, the alliance and the media, as he casts his searchlight on the 'deep state', moral bankruptcy and bad leadership. A sobering, razor-sharp analysis of the uncomfortable 'Zuma moment'.
Steve Biko made a deep impression on youngsters in his hometown, Ginsberg. Among them was Xolela Mangcu, who here delves into Biko's own childhood: Steve as prankster at Forbes Grant school, and his lack of interest in politics – until, at St Francis College, his brother Khaya is arrested and Steve too is bundled into a police car. Mangcu looks at how Biko has affected the course of his own life – and at the legacy he left, giving us the courage and the language to claim our freedom.
Reading the script of Invictus, finding a new – anti-slavery Afrikaans – name for Mandela's Cape Town home, discussing awkward issues like HIV or coloured politics: through all these Wilmot James's admiration for Mandela's values and fearlessness g
South Africa suffers a crisis of leadership. Yet history offers many an example of spectacular, authentically African leaders, untouched by white influence. Max du Preez has unearthed new data on visionary leaders Maqoma, Mohlomi and especially Moshoeshoe, who founded a peaceful nation through persuasion and prosperity. Moshoeshoe, embracing diversity and new technologies, knew that nothing threatens a nation more than poverty. An absorbing and timely look at what African leaders can be.
With Jacob Zuma presiding over an inept kleptocracy lurching from one dysfunction to the next, clearly what was needed was a distraction from bigger issues . . . and so Africa's oldest liberation movement launched a crazed assault on artistic freedom by mobilising against a painting featuring Zuma's penis. . . With razor sharp wit, journalist and commentator Andrew Donaldson explores what can be termed the ruling party's Achilles 'piel'.