The proceedings of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the killings at Marikana have been widely criticised for their many shortcomings, but a number of important points of evidence have emerged in key thematic areas. What follows is a brief overview of the most...
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Where is the EFF?: A brief account of the EFF’s existence thus far
'A giant is born,' said Julius Malema, 'the Commander-in-Chief' of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at the confirmation of the party's registration in Pretoria on the 8th of October in 2013. There has been a veritable hurricane of responses following the birth of...
Where Is Everybody? | by Tom Engelhardt
Two Sundays ago, I traveled to the nation's capital to attend what was billed as "the largest climate rally in history" and I haven't been able to get the experience -- or a question that haunted me -- out of my mind. Where was everybody? First, though, the obvious...
Police attack UKZN Students
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Grad Students at UKZN Attacked, Arrested by SAPS and private security without provocation Today, just after 12:30pm, students participating in a peaceful demonstration at Howard College were attacked and arrested by SAPS. Peaceful protests...
The Thick End of the Wedge: The Editor’s Notebook | by Peter Bruce
SO, Julius Malema strides confidently into the midst of what we are told is a 7,000-strong band of armed and angry miners, and calms them down. "Malema takes charge!" exclaimed the front page headline of one of the better Sunday papers. Before him all power — the...
Malema: Miners were killed to protect Cyril Ramaphosa shares
President Jacob Zuma and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa must resign following the death of mineworkers at Lonmin's Marikana operations, in the North West, expelled ANC Youth League President Julius Malema said on Saturday. "President Zuma decided over the massacre of...
The Youth Wage Subsidy: Mixing Farce with Force | by Leonard Gentle
The spectacle of the blows between a Democratic Alliance-led crowd and COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) would have been the stuff of farce if it weren’t so tragically unedifying. The DA has every right to march and be “provocative”. COSATU’s response...
Protests and Police Statistics: Some Commentary | by Prof. Peter Alexander
On 19 March the Minister of Police, Mr. Nathi Mthetwa, informed parliament about the number of ‘crowd management incidents’ that occurred during the three years from 1 April 2009. Table 1, compares the new data with similar statistics for the preceding five years.In...
The leeches and legalists squabbling over Gaddafi | by Brendan O’Neill
Neither Western leaders trying to wring moral mileage out of Gaddafi's death, nor UN officials denouncing it as illegal, deserve our backing. It is hard to know who comes out worse from the grisly aftermath of Colonel Gaddafi's death. Is it Western leaders like UK...




