Vol 4 Issue 8
Focus: Xenophobia
in South Africa
Reasons for the impeding
crisis
by Patrick Craven
The recent shocking spate of murderous attacks on foreign residents has rightly dominated both the media and the academic world. IOLS Research has already made an important contribution to the debate around the causes of this outbreak of violence.
What is becoming clear is that there is no consensus on the underlying reasons for the problem and the debate will doubtless continue <read more>
Focus: Xenophobia in South Africa
Nothing more than an inferiority complex
by Phumlani Zulu
These violent attacks are a blot on a country that has produced one of the finest constitutions in
the world. There is a need for strong and visible action both in the short
and medium term and it must be proactive. For now law enforcement units must
work tirelessly to contain the situation and our government should use all
means possible to offer structural, psychological and
other appropriate relief to the victims of this violence. Our security forces need to clamp down hard on
the violence by arresting and severely punishing the perpetrators. We, the South
African citizens should become bed fellows with security forces and work hand
in hand with them in apprehending the perpetrators <read more>
UKZN
The plight of tutors at UKZN:
who is the real culprit?
by Percy Ngonyama
At an institution such as the University of
KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) where, regrettably, for a number of reasons, issues
affecting the University community are seldom openly discussed, the ongoing
debate elicited by Brian Zondo's well argued piece on the dire situation of
tutors must be welcome <read more>
UKZN
NOCWAL: Supporting potgraduate ressearch
by Yajiv Haripersad and Sabeeha Maithir
University education is characterized by a
reputation for developing critical thinkers. This is especially so in the
Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences. However the gap between
developing an analytical mind on a learner level, guided by teachers or
supervisors within the relevant higher education institutions and writing
independently is one that remains under-developed. Postgraduate learners rarely
express individual (or collective) research interest through independent
initiative research papers or the like. Reason for this being, that there is no
formalized space dedicated to the stimulation of postgraduate research through
which postgraduate learners can express their interest in research <read more>
Editorial
Normalizing Xenophobia
by Azad Essa
All those with doomsday
theories will be shot down as Afro-pessimists and racists, but surely the
magnitude of the tragic events should be used as a warning of things to come if
socio-economic conditions for the majority aren't vigorously addressed rather
than as some once-off anomaly?
Government's response
suggests otherwise. <read more>
Book Review
My Life: Fidel Castro
With Ignacio Ramonet
Published by Allen
Lane, an imprint of Penguin,
November, 2007, 724
pages, U.K, £25 .00, India, 795Rs.
Reviewed by Wajahat Ahmad
It is the story of a revolutionary leader who
has been mobbed like a rock star in Latin American countries. Whether you love
him or hate him, Castro is Weberian charisma personified, a widely
respected leader in Cuba, the land of famed Cigars and 'permanent revolution',
and beyond. <read more>
Vol 4 Issue 7
Focus on Xenophobia
Crisis...what crisis?
by David
Bullard
Before I
got axed from the Sunday Times I wrote a couple of columns commenting on
President Mbeki's rather dismissive attitude towards Zimbabwean immigrants. He
once made a remark along the lines of ''they are here so get used to it''. I
argued that we owed Zimbabweans fleeing from a despotic regime rather more than
that. Unless they were absorbed into society, given identity documents and
their talents utilized we were in for big trouble.
Governments
don't like to be told what to do by journalists and that's partly why I am no
longer writing for the Sunday Times I suspect and why I am unable to find
employment with any other newspaper <read more>
Focus on Xenophobia
Is Government nurturing xenophobia?
by Steven Gordon
The current xenophobic
brutality of the South African townships is not, as ANC President Jacob Zuma
believes, ''senseless''. The violence directed at
migrants does not spring from the empty air or burst forth from the ground
fully formed. Nor can the violence be described as a mere consequence or
after-effect of poverty, unfulfilled economic expectations or the failure of
law and order. The crime epidemic, the current housing shortage and the failure
of service delivery within many townships and urban spaces cannot explain or
justify the sheer scale of the violence, why immigrants were targeted, or the
speed at which it spread <read more>
UKZN STUDENTS SPEAK OUT
Xenophobia in South Africa:
The musings of a Zimbabwean postgraduate student at UKZN
by Eslidha Chimedza
The past two weeks, and God knows until when, in
South Africa,
have been hell for anyone who is not of this land; the so called ''foreigner''.
The attacks on foreign nationals has left us turning our heads, looking over
our shoulders every few meters,
switching off our cell phones in public, in fear of being heard conversing in
an unrecognized language. My own language has become taboo in fear of being
victimized for not being South African, except when I am in the company of
fellow country mates <read more>
UKZN STUDENTS SPEAK OUT
South Africa: a land of refuge?
by Joly Lutakwa
Having witnessed the
impact of similar attacks toward people who are different from ''Us'', in
countries like Rwanda, Somalia and the DRC,
I feel extreme concern about the
fact that people are being attacked without a real or defendable cause, other
than being (perceived as) different. We
would never have imagined that black South Africans, after years of apartheid
and experiencing what it meant to be treated differently, would fail to
tolerate these unfortunate fellow Africans seeking safety within their borders.
What is the point of being able to say that South Africa has acted in a
praiseworthy way during the last war of apartheid, if we have nothing positive
to say about what has been done in the current one? <read more>
Focus on Xenophobia
South
Africa remains safe from serious scrutiny
by Azad Essa
Media
coverage on international news networks, like BBC and Sky, have had a field day
broadcasting shocking images of recent events in South Africa: foreigners set
alight, newly orphaned children clutching the hands of stranger's and angry
violent mobs ruling the streets of our business capital, Johannesburg.
Likewise, our local press has expressed outrage, with dailies publishing very
disturbing photographs on their front pages, both in protest and to cash in on the
unfolding drama. <read more>
Editorial
What
now?
by Aisha Lorgat
Now we have all seen it, here and abroad, emblazoned
like a shameful scarlet letter in media images and news feeds that are
strikingly similar to the beginnings of the Rwandan genocide. Horrifying images
of necklacing, the punishment meted out in township justice during apartheid
that everyone, we certainly, assumed had no place in the new South Africa,
return to haunt our collective consciousness again. The crime this time
however, was not being an informant or askari, but that the man burning to
appease the blood lust of the mob had committed the truly despicable crime of
being born north of the Limpopo <read more>