NI 548 - March, 2024

South Africa 30 years later

A note from the editor

AMANDLA!

Since our first issue in 1973, South Africa has never been far from the pages of this magazine.

In our March 1995 edition, which had the same theme as this one, editor David Ransom used this very column to describe a chance encounter with a watch repairer in Johannesburg. Des ‘reckoned it would be another 10 years, perhaps 20, before things started to improve’. He was ‘prepared to wait, though he’d rather not – he and his family had already been waiting 15 years for a house’. It’s now 30 years since the end of apartheid, and many South Africans are still waiting.

Interviewed in that issue, National Union of Mineworkers leader and future South African president Kgalema Motlanthe concluded: ‘Big business will shower those comrades who are now in government with all sorts of gifts. That’s the first line of attack. The trick is whether they will have the ability to deal with it.’ A prescient warning, not only of the corporate capture of government under Jacob Zuma, but also that of Motlanthe’s own union, brought to the fore by the Marikana massacre of 2012.

This Big Story, produced in collaboration with the Alameda Institute, features voices seeking to build a future for South Africa which meets not only the principles of the Freedom Charter but the challenges of the present day. South Africa’s seismic prosecution of Israel at the Hague offers a glimpse of how oppression need not always beget oppression.

Elsewhere in this issue, we examine how Italy’s far-right PM Giorgia Meloni gets a free pass from international leaders, and our Agony Uncle ponders how to advise the next generation of activists.

Conrad Landin for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

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

NI 548 - March, 2024

South Africa 30 years later

A note from the editor

AMANDLA!

The big story

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.

The Big Story

Culture; inequality; corruption; health; migration.

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

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

Italy’s extremist prime minister is courting politicians abroad even as she enacts an authoritarian agenda of hate at home. But Giorgia Meloni’s embrace by the mainstream needs to end, argues Elena Siniscalco.

In spite of the overwhelming odds against them, a spirit of feminist resistance exists among Afghanistan’s girls and women. Jen Ross reports.

Leprosy had been almost eliminated in Nigeria, but the disease has made a resurgence. Promise Eze reports on how patients continue to be abandoned by the government and stigmatized by society.

From arms deals to surveillance tech exchanges, Yara Hawari explains how alliances have been – and continue to be – fostered between Israel and various Arab governments.

Comment

Politicians using women, by Nilanjana Bhowmick.

Time to divest from the business of evangelicalism? By Rosebell Kagumire.

Gaza is another reason for division in polarized Brazil. By Leonardo Sakamoto.

Currents

Report on the Israel/Palestine conflict by Oren Ziv.

Citizens of Cyprus are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, writes Richard Matoušek.

Nepal transformed from a safe-haven into an open-air prison, writes Steve Shaw.

Papua New Guinea; Bangladesh; Jamaica; Peru; Sub-Saharan Africa.

Citizenship rule changes in Malaysia by Graeme Green.

Adele Walton reports on the digital human and labour rights of sex workers in Europe.

Senegal’s fishing industry has now collapsed, reports Tristen Taylor.

Rahila Gupta reports on arrests in El Salvador.

Brazil’s most prominent housing activist, by Richard Swift.

Kashmir’s apple farming struggling with the effects of climate change.

120 Tudun Biri village civilians killed in northwest Nigeria by a drone, reports Promise Eze.

Homeward bound; Trans Health win; Chocolatiers of the rainforest.

Regulars

Praise, blame and all points in between? Give us your feedback.

Sophie Neiman reports from a stifling court in Kampala, where activists are waging a bitter legal battle to overturn Uganda’s harsh anti-gay law.

‘Inequality of life’ by Rodrigo de Matos (Portugal).

Cancelled: Jewish journalist Masha Gessen.

Argentina: "No hay cuerpos sanos en territorios enfermos".

The photos, facts, and politics of Georgia.

ILYA looks back on the botched US invasion of Cuba after Fidel Castro’s revolution.

Highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.

Indian author Amitav Ghosh talks to Graeme Green about colonialism and the current opioid crisis.

Average global temperature, by P J Polyp.

International law, by Marc Roberts.

Four sources of climate hope. Words by Danny Chivers.

Press the trigger. Illustration by Kate Evans.

Leader of the British Labour Party.

Ethical and political dilemmas abound these days. This month: Climate camp.

Film, Book & Music Reviews

Business Power and the State in the Central Andes; Lovebug; Alphabetical Diaries; Ghost Pains.

The Zone of Interest; The Settlers (Los Colonos).

Delight; If I Must Die and other works.

A new study of civilizational thinking leaves no doubt as to its 19th century origins, writes Ed McNally.