Launched Friday, July 24, 2026, think tank Vuka Azania stands to finish the liberation project as its mandate, and to alter the abject black condition as its goal. Vuka Azania is not to be confused with Afriforum by any discerning mind. They are polar opposites. Where Vuka Azania seeks the rehumanisation of black people, Afriforum exists precisely to elongate the cruelty of the black condition — the very soil from which white privilege grows. The black condition is none of…

When two Unisa students boarded flights to undertake a European Union-funded Erasmus+ semester programme at the Romanian-American University in Bucharest, Romania, they expected a purely academic exchange. However, what they found on arrival was a truly transformative experience. For Nokuthula, a postgraduate law student, and Mpho, an undergraduate business student, the programme opened doors, social circles and perspectives that reshaped how they see their studies and themselves as future young leaders. Their story demonstrates why university students from South Africa…

The Diagnostic We Already Have Germany and Great Britain both had a difficult stretch this summer. On 23 June, grid frequency in Great Britain fell below the safe operating limit for a sustained period during the evening peak, with no market warning issued, and the system operator curtailed exports to the Netherlands and France to bring it back under control [15]. On 24 and 26 June, it issued electricity margin notices it had never issued in summer before [15]. Then,…

The pain of Africa today has become glaringly apparent, born of leadership that refuses to serve. When leaders fail, nations do not merely stumble; they bleed. Schools crumble, hospitals run dry, industries collapse, and people scatter across the world, taking with them dreams that could have nourished their nations. The contradiction is impossible to ignore. Across the continent, nations rich in resources continue to produce poor outcomes. Africa is home to approximately 30% of the world’s known mineral reserves, yet…

Do not even try to suggest synonymity. On the simmering matter between Action SA chairman Michael Beaumont and Tony Leon’s private company, Resolve Communications, lobbying has suddenly sprung up to be preferred, purportedly free of corruption. The two words, lobbying and corruption, are now cast to be neck to neck in the race for meaning. This follows outgone DA leader John Steenhuisen’s interview with News24 editor Adriaan Basson. In the interview, Steenhuisen claimed his exit as DA leader and Agriculture…

It is “anti-illegal immigration”, not “anti-immigration”. To label the aggrieved vigilantes is to condescendingly saunter about bereft of empathy for those burdened with pain of walking with stones in their shoes. Narrative-fixers blur this immigration on purpose. This clouds the issue. It makes honest resolution impossible. Behind the blur are other maladies that lurk beneath what the eye can see. Farm exploitation Undocumented workers are paid slave wages, opening them up to living in slave conditions. Some are killed, buried…

Recently, the South African government has been trying to arrest the effects of xenophobia. However, as a country, it is crucial that we analyse the so-called xenophobic attacks within the context of a lack of responses from other African countries, including those that had previously hosted South African refugees when the opportunity arose. The allegations of xenophobia, Afrophobia, and criminality directly result from the elected political class’s inadequate service delivery, which fails to provide essential services, including adequate healthcare, particularly…

Words matter. Definitions matter. Considering power relations, Toni Morrison hammers the nail on the head: “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” The corollary equally holds, power belongs to the definers and not the defined. When they called us ‘non-whites’, they wrote our negation. Buried us in the grave of nobodies. When we said ‘Black is beautiful’, we wrote our resurrection. We heaved back to life. We felt our feet depositing dignity on our land. This, we did, not…

Johannesburg is scrambled upon as a preferred laboratory for testing all sorts of devilish experiments. Perhaps we must consider how we tackle South African public discourse and liberate it from being Johannesburg-centric. Regrettably, for now, Johannesburg occupies a New York state of mind. If one makes it here, it is believed one will make it anywhere. Frank Sinatra sang it. Shirley Bassey sang it. Lou Rawls sang it. Repeated with rhythmic melody, we believed it. I must admit, we in…

In the current hype surrounding “Mabahambe” in South Africa, we risk losing an important opportunity for serious intellectual and analytical engagement. What is most concerning is that even some of the African voices we typically respect seem hesitant to interrogate the deeper structural issues confronting our societies. Today, I choose not to engage the question of the Berlin borders. Whatever their historical origins and consequences, African states have collectively chosen to recognise them and to organise their political lives around…