THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Jan

18

2024

South Africa’s ANC marks its 112th year with an eye on national elections, but its record is patchy and future uncertain

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE speech President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered at the 112th birthday celebration of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), on 13 January can be seen as the party’s opening election gambit: a stadium packed to capacity, the display of a united leadership, and an invocation of three decades of success, delivered by a leader firmly in control of his party. SANDY AFRICA, Associate Professor, Political Sciences, and Deputy Dean Teaching and Learning (Humanities), University of Pretoria The annual January 8 statement, unsurprisingly, was a 30-year self-assessment and is self-congratulatory. It was silent on the many failings under ANC…

Jan

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Uganda’s battle for the youth vote – how Museveni keeps Bobi Wine’s reach in check

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

UGANDA is one of the youngest countries in the world, with an average age of 15.9 years. Young people aged below 30 make up about 77% of the country’s population of 47 million people. Young people have legitimate and wide-ranging grievances, from unemployment to disenfranchisement. Opportunities remain limited, with two-thirds of Ugandans working for themselves or doing family-based agricultural work. REBECCA TAPSCOTT, Lecturer, University of York ANNA MACDONALD, Associate Professor, Global Development, University of East Anglia Yet, young people in Uganda haven’t coalesced as an electoral bloc. This is despite the emergence of a presidential candidate who champions youth issues.…

Jan

17

2024

By The African Mirror

South Africa has made its genocide case against Israel in court. Here’s what both sides said and what happens next

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EDITORS CHOICE

FOLLOWING the October 7 attack by Hamas, Israeli forces have carried out sustained attacks on the Palestinian-controlled territory, dividing the international community. Last week, the South African government presented a case to the International Court of Justice. They argued the Israeli government’s attack on Gaza, and especially the actions of its forces within Gaza since early October, could amount to genocide. PAUL TAUCHER, Lecturer in History, Murdoch University DEAN ASZKIELOWICZ, Senior Lecturer in History and Politics, Murdoch University Few cases that have gone before the court are as explosive and potentially significant as this one. Here’s how the hearings unfolded…

Jan

15

2024

By SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

South Africa transitions from apartheid victim to global advocate in Israel case

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EDITORS CHOICE

SOUTH Africa's unprecedented move to sue Israel for genocide at the ICJ, inspired by its own history of resistance to apartheid, is reinforcing Africa's heft in the increasingly combustible global geopolitical scene. The ICJ in The Hague will hear arguments from South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. The case, which has drawn support from several states, as well as human rights groups, is seen as a historic challenge to Israel's military actions and policies in the occupied territories. South Africa, which suffered under the brutal system of apartheid for decades, claims to have a…

Jan

14

2024

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s legal team in the genocide case against Israel has won praise. Who are they?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SOUTH African justice minister Ronald Lamola led a top legal team to argue the country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 11 January. NARNIA BOHLER-MULLER, Divisional Executive, Developmental, Capable and Ethical State research division, Human Sciences Research Council South Africa argues that Israel’s indiscriminate retaliatory bombing and siege of Gaza contravenes the Genocide Convention. More than 23,000 Palestinians, including at least 10,000 children, have been killed. Narnia Bohler-Muller, an international law and human rights law expert, says the South African legal team argued soundly that Israel’s actions in Gaza are genocidal, and tells us…

Jan

13

2024

By ABBEY MAKOE

The Herero people are scarred by the pain of Germany’s old “genocide”

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EDITORS CHOICE

ON January 12, 1904, the Herero people of Namibia revolted against the long-standing German colonial rule in search of their freedom. They had reached a point of saturation with the brutality of Germany’s occupation of their territory in what was then known as South West Africa. Armed to the teeth after secretly mobilising weapons to eject the unwelcome European imperialists, they encircled the German troops in what seemed like a final face-to-face with destiny.South West Africa had been under Germany’s colonial rule from 1884 until 1919, a total of 35 agonising years of living under the strict control of a…

Jan

10

2024

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s genocide case against Israel: expert sets out what to expect from the International Court of Justice

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE International Court of Justice (ICJ) will be holding public hearings on 11-12 January at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the court, in a case brought by South Africa against Israel. South Africa has accused Israel of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in its military bombardment and siege of Gaza, which started after the deadly 7 October Hamas attack on Israel. Both Israel and South Africa have ratified the genocide convention. We asked human rights and international law expert Magnus Killander for his insights. MAGNUS KILLANDER, Professor, Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law,…

Jan

09

2024

By ABBEY MAKOE

China’s diplomacy seeks to “make the world a better place for all” – President Xi

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EDITORS CHOICE

CHINA has exercised a steadfast determination in its foreign policy stance, insisting on emphasis on multilateralism and shared prosperity throughout the international community. The rapid geopolitical rise of China’s global stature under President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party has been accompanied by massive economic growth that has catapulted China into the world’s second-largest economy after only the US. Geopolitical economists believe that China, as the world’s fastest developing economy over the past decade, stands in good stead to overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy. This is good news for the entire global south in particular. China’s…

Jan

05

2024

By The African Mirror

Peter Magubane: courageous photographer who chronicled South Africa’s struggle for freedom

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EDITORS CHOICE

PETER Sexford Magubane, a courageous South African photographer whose images testify to both the iniquity of apartheid and the determination and devotion of those who brought about its demise, passed away at 91 years of age in early January 2024. KYLIE THOMAS, Senior Researcher and Senior Lecturer (Radical Humanities Laboratory, University College Cork), NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Magubane leaves behind a vast archive of extraordinary images, many of which continue to be the signature images of some of the worst atrocities committed by the apartheid regime. The photographer suffered great losses during apartheid. In 1969 Magubane…

Jan

04

2024

By BHARGAV ACHARYA

Peter Magubane, South African photographer who documented apartheid, dies aged 91

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

PETER Magubane, the renowned artist-photographer who shed light on the everyday struggles of Black South Africans for decades under apartheid, died on Monday. He was 91. After joining Drum magazine in 1955, Magubane gained prominence as one of the few Black photographers covering the repressive era. One of his landmark images, taken a year later in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb, showed a white girl sitting on a bench with a sign reading "Europeans Only" while a Black worker sat behind her combing her hair. In the 1960s, amid a surge in anti-apartheid activism, he covered Nelson Mandela's arrest and the…