World AIDS Day posters line a Johannesburg street on 1 December, 2018. Fatima Hassan become one of the foremost campaigners on public health in South Africa after working on legal protections for people living with HIV.Photo: Eva-Lotta Jansson/Alamy

‘Big Pharma is at peak power’

Fatima Hassan took on South Africa’s AIDS denialism – and won. Later, she turned her attention to ‘vaccine apartheid’ in the Covid-19 pandemic. Conrad Landin meets her in Cape Town.

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NI 550 - Abortion - July, 2024
Illustration: Megan Park

At the crossroads

This year’s election could mark a major shift in South Africa’s parliamentary politics. But re-building a Left capable of winning popular support presents a far bigger challenge, argue William Shoki and Niall Reddy.

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NI 548 - South Africa 30 years later - March, 2024
A man attempts to start a generator outside a ‘spaza’ tuck shop in Thembisa, on the East Rand, Gauteng, in August 2023. Collapsing power infrastructure and corruption mean regular scheduled power cuts – or loadshedding – are now a fact of life. But the rich are shielded from their impact through private generation systems – demonstrating that corruption is a class issue.Photo: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

When the lights go out

The ‘state capture’ of South Africa’s public services has seen billions sequestered by a new boss class as public services collapse. Ra’eesa Pather reports.

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NI 548 - South Africa 30 years later - March, 2024
Fuel pump attendants strike in Cape Town on 9 September 2013. The following year their union, NUMSA, broke from COSATU, the union confederation which forms part of the ruling alliance. Its subsequent political project met a soggy ending when it failed to pass the low threshold required to enter parliament at the 2019 elections.Photo: Mike Hutchings/Reuters

The metal that bent

When South Africa’s largest trade union broke with the ruling alliance, left-wingers saw cause for hope – but things soon turned sour. Niall Reddy and William Shoki explore the consequences of what happened next.

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NI 548 - South Africa 30 years later - March, 2024
Fortress nation

Fortress nation

South Africa is experiencing a wave of vigilante violence against poor Black migrants, mostly from the African continent. Musawenkosi Cabe reports.

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NI 548 - South Africa 30 years later - March, 2024
Community members and activists meet with an environmental law firm in Somkhele, KwaZulu Natal, 2019, amid a dispute over a coal mine in the area. South Africa’s laws and post-apartheid constitution have been effectively leveraged by civil society organizations over the past few decades, but direct action has dwindled.Photo: Zuma Press/Alamy

All rise

South Africa’s constitution has allowed social movements to clock up a number of legal victories. But, Claire-Anne Lester asks, can the law really deliver social and economic justice?

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NI 548 - South Africa 30 years later - March, 2024
Firefighters on the scene after a fire engulfed an illegally occupied government-owned building in Johannesburg on 31 August 2023. More than 70 people were killed and scores of others were injured. Fear of crime has led to the abandonment of the city centre by business and prosperous residents, leaving it in a state of near-lawlessness.Photo: Shiraaz Mohamed

Morbid symptoms

South Africa is losing its status as an upper-middle income developing country. Benjamin Fogel examines the challenges this poses for a young democracy.

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NI 548 - South Africa 30 years later - March, 2024
South Africa - The Facts

South Africa - The Facts

Culture; inequality; corruption; health; migration.

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NI 548 - South Africa 30 years later - March, 2024
Seth Mazibuko, left, served time in Robben Island for his role in leading the 1976 Soweto uprising. He says South Africa’s current president Cyril Ramaphosa, right, and much of the ANC leadership has been ‘found wanting’.Photo: Jacob Mawela

Africa’s pandora’s box

Can South Africa ever fully shake off the shackles of apartheid? Conrad Landin asks whether the country’s historic genocide case against Israel could lead to a reckoning at home.

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NI 548 - South Africa 30 years later - March, 2024
Photo: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann

The Interview: Ayakha Melithafa

The 19-year-old climate activist is making her voice heard across South Africa and beyond. She speaks with Uyapo Majahana about climate anxiety, life lessons and getting beyond tokenism.

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NI 542 - A world to win - March, 2023
Cape Town’s Technology Transfer Hub is supporting the development of Covid-19 vaccines in the Global South – but Western pharmaceutical companies are refusing to co-operate.Photo: Alfonso Stoffels

A people’s vaccine?

Report from South Africa by Frankie Leach.

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NI 540 - Land rights - November, 2022
The colour of wine

The colour of wine

In recent years, black wine growers, distillers’ and drinkers have been staking their claim on the industry.

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NI 535 - Romani lives matter - January, 2022
Inequality Watch

Inequality Watch

Wealth inequality in South Africa.

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NI 533 - Food justice: who gets to eat? - September, 2021
Colour-co-ordinated laundry hanging out to dry in the background, children play in the parking lot of Cissie Gool House, an unused government hospital in the Woodstock neighbourhood, occupied by 700 evictees from the area since 2017.Image: Lerato Maduna

Fighting dispossession

Cape Town’s citizens’ groups are not taking housing injustice lying down, according to Ben Verghese and Ilham Rawoot.

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NI 531 - Vaccine equality - May, 2021
Lesson under a tree. Showing photographs and talking about the differences between Britain and Burkina Faso to a class of schoolchildren in 1995.Photo: Claude Sauvageot

New Internationalist: the first 50 years – and the next

Chris Brazier looks back over a career as a co-editor that stretches back to 1984, remembering highlights and dark moments from Nicaragua to Vietnam, South Africa to Western Sahara and Burkina Faso.

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NI 531 - Vaccine equality - May, 2021
Photo: Lebo Thoka

Southern Exposure: Lebo Thoka

An iconic self-portrait by South African photographer Lebo Thoka.

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NI 528 - A caring economy - November, 2020
Illustration: Sarah John

The city inside you

Letter from Johannesburg. Yewande Omotoso ponders how belonging to a city goes beyond the bald fact of living in it.

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NI 528 - A caring economy - November, 2020
Illustration: Sarah John

Green medicine

Yewande Omotoso’s apartment is slowly being taken over by plants, much to her delight.

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NI 527 - Covid-19 lessons from the pandemic - September, 2020
Illustration: Sarah John

Letter from Johannesburg

Ways of belonging. Having travelled to the land of her birth as the coronavirus pandemic began to gather pace, Yewande Omotoso feels the tug of home.

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NI 526 - The Kurds - betrayed again - July, 2020
Illustration: Sarah John

Letter from Johannesburg

Befriending a namesake leads Yewande Omotoso down paths she hadn’t followed before.

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NI 525 - The fight for clean air - May, 2020

Articles in this category displayed as a table:

Article title From magazine Publication date
Abortion July, 2024
South Africa 30 years later March, 2024
South Africa 30 years later March, 2024
South Africa 30 years later March, 2024
South Africa 30 years later March, 2024
South Africa 30 years later March, 2024
South Africa 30 years later March, 2024
South Africa 30 years later March, 2024
South Africa 30 years later March, 2024
A world to win March, 2023
Land rights November, 2022
Romani lives matter January, 2022
Food justice: who gets to eat? September, 2021
Vaccine equality May, 2021
Vaccine equality May, 2021
A caring economy November, 2020
A caring economy November, 2020
Covid-19 lessons from the pandemic September, 2020
The Kurds - betrayed again July, 2020
The fight for clean air May, 2020
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