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Edward Webster: South African intellectual, teacher, activist, a man of great energy and integrity, and the life and soul of any party

Edward Webster: South African intellectual, teacher, activist, a man of great energy and integrity, and the life and soul of any party

Eddie Webster (82), sociologist and emeritus professor at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, who died on 5 March 2024, lived a huge life, applying himself to many different arenas with great energy and insight. KARL VON HOLDT, Senior Researcher, Society Work and Politics Institute, University of the Witwatersrand His achievements are quite extraordinary. He was an intellectual, a teacher, a leader, an activist for social change, a builder of institutions, a rugby player and jogger, a man of great energy and integrity, and the life and soul of any party.…
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Zuleikha Mayat: South African author and activist who led a life of courage, compassion and integrity

Zuleikha Mayat: South African author and activist who led a life of courage, compassion and integrity

FEW Indian South African women have achieved wider public recognition than author, human rights and cultural activist Zuleikha Mayat, who passed away on 2 February 2024. An honorary doctorate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal was just one of many awards bestowed on her during a life that spanned almost 98 years. SALEEM BADAT, Research Professor, UFS History Department, University of the Free State Mayat was a remarkable pioneer, evocative writer, public speaker, civic worker, human rights champion and philanthropist. She was a staunch supporter of Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli apartheid and genocide. I am a scholar of…
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COP28 climate deal ‘stab in the back’, activist Greta Thunberg says

COP28 climate deal ‘stab in the back’, activist Greta Thunberg says

THE COP 28 climate deal reached with huge fanfare this week in Dubai is a stab in the back for the nations most affected by global warming and won't stop temperatures rising beyond critical levels, activist Greta Thunberg said. Nearly 200 countries agreed at the summit to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuel and adopt a raft of measures, including more clean energy production, to avert the worst effects of climate change. But critics say the deal will not prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, which scientists say will trigger catastrophic and irreversible impacts, from…
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Outcast to icon: Peter Tatchell’s 50 years of LGBT+ activism

Outcast to icon: Peter Tatchell’s 50 years of LGBT+ activism

HUGO GREENHALGH DRIVEN by passion and motivated by justice, veteran activist Peter Tatchell says LGBT+ equality remains elusive despite his 50-year campaign for gay rights in Britain and beyond. In a Netflix documentary that premiered on Thursday, the maverick campaigner said fairness for LGBT+ people from Iran to Zimbabwe was a distant dream and the West had to change, too. "The battle for queer freedom will never end until every LGBT+ person on this planet has respect, dignity and human rights," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Tatchell said the fight for rights had stalled in Britain, where the government this month announced…
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