As a child, I was captivated by machines and their inner workings. I yearned to design contraptions that could solve real-world problems and improve people’s lives. So when it came to selecting my major for university education, I knew that mechanical engineering was the right choice.   As for university, I decided to study at Assosa University in Ethiopia, because of the university’s reputation for excellence in mechanical engineering and the vibrant culture of the city it’s located in. For a…

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU), founded and launched on 25 May 1963, was the highest and the most concentrated expression of Pax Africana in the twilight of colonial domination in Africa. It was Africa’s epic united front against the cunning shenanigans of the then-retreating European colonial forces. The path to shaping and consolidating on this pan-African framework to tackle the burning issues of the time and the remnants of colonialism, and charting the course of total independence for all…

While working on the first edition of my first book, The Eyes That Lit Our Lives, I put together a list of people I thought were vital in helping me to bring the story of a man whose Eyes had Lit Our Lives, Steve Bantu Biko. In the list, there were colleagues who were within Biko’s age group. There were also others who were younger than him, born in the 1950s and 1960s.  Curiously, I needed the elderly folks too.…

Arising from my recent article, the question arose if I should not have addressed it to the ANC instead of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL). One comrade has cited the impact of factional divisions within the ANC on the ANCYL. He argues that this has had a very negative effect on the composition of ANCYL task teams, their mandate as well as their political and organisational focus. He is sceptical of the commitment of the ANC leadership towards unity and…

WHAT the proxy war between Russia and Ukraine illustrates is that not all lives matter nor is the wellbeing of all nations and countries. The money-making war machines matter the most to preserving human lives. That the national interests of some countries are a given, and not so with others, is the mother of all hostilities breastfeeding toxicity amongst supposedly free nations of the world to deny them their deserved peace. This is all because of the Euro-Anglo-American-centric logic fuelling…

Unemployment is one of South Africa’s biggest tragedies. Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the first quarter of 2023 has painted a grim picture of the youth unemployment rate in the country, which increased by 1.1 percent to 46,5 percent this year.  Around 11% of workers who should be working are unemployed. Up to 70% of young workers, between the ages of 15 and 24 years, are unemployed. Over 30 million South Africans live below the poverty…

They say old folk tend to behave like children. In recent weeks, South Africa as a nation had a front seat in this theatrical and toxic tantrum of South Africa’s oldest serving parliamentarian and nonagenarian. This soap opera of politics, draped in bitter entitlement, better understood in a tantrum, spares no one. It invokes the dead monarch against the living; it pits a monarchy against a democracy, ‘decades of experience’ at the expense of the new. It deliberately conflates the…

BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhua) — With more than 40 years of reform and opening-up, China has eradicated extreme poverty, lifted about 800 million people out of poverty, and brought over 400 million people into the middle-income group. This is a miracle in the history of human civilization and has far-reaching implications for global human rights governance. The United States has never considered poverty eradication a human rights issue, while Europe considers it an obstacle to the realization of human rights…

At the height of human rights abuses globally, the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, Austria, adopted the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA) in 1993. This is a significant human rights document aimed to address the state of human rights globally and set a framework for promoting and protecting human rights in the future. Adopted unanimously, the VDPA recognises that the promotion and protection of human rights is a legitimate concern of the international community and…

The implications of South African Reserve Bank (SARB) decisions on workers and black South Africans are significant, considering the history of financial exclusion and discrimination that has affected the majority black population in South Africa. The lingering effects of apartheid-era policies continue to impede the economic advancement of black individuals and businesses. Of particular concern is the indifference of the central bank towards the plight of marginalised communities.  On May 25th, the SARB’s monetary policy committee (MPC) raised the repo rate for the tenth…