South Africa

Is there hope for real progress in Liberia? Ever since Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took office, there have been signs of progress. In Today’s Boston Globe Carolyn Norris, West Africa Project director and Mark L. Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group, indicate that while there is much yet to be accomplished the small steps continue apace. This would, naturally, be fantastic news for on eof West Africa’s most beleaguered states.

The Mail & Guardian has several stories (see here, here, here, and here) about Steve Biko’s life, death, legacy, and his meaning for South Africans today on a whole host of issues, including crime and politics. 

Meanwhile mysterious rumors are beginning to swirl about a “counter-revolution” against the ANC. ANC paranoia? Politics as usual in a still young state? Opposition party fantasy? Media dream story? Probably a combination of all of these, truth be told.  Stay tuned . . .

Today marks the 30th anniversary of Steve Biko’s death while in police detention.  

Newsweek has a story on the United States’ efforts to step up anti-terrorism activities in the Horn of Africa as embodied in Africom, the military’s planned Africa Command.

The United States lauds the role that South Africa played in helping to bring about the conviction of Gerhard Wisser, who was deeply involved in the notorious Pakistani AQ Khan’s nuclear netowrk.

South Africa appears to have made some laudable progress on achieving a host of targets related to dealing with the country’s AIDS crisis. On the other hand, there is a cloud of mistrust that charecterizes much of the debate over AIDS policy that will have to be addressed for progress to continue to occur. 

Is division within the ANC largely a creation of the media? Or do members of the party agree? The Mail & Guardian has one perspective.

If’s a busy news cycle right now in Southern Africa. here are a number of stories that caught my eye in today’s chock-full Mail & Guardian and elsewhere:

As the thirteith anniversary of the murder of Steven Bantu Biko at the hands of the security forces approaches different South Africans remember Biko’s life and death differently.

the Zimbabwe crisis continues unabated. The economic calamity has opened the door for corruption. Some maintain hopes  that South African-brokered talked will lead to a resolution of the political elements of the country’s conflicts, but it seems that  this may not be the time for whistling past the graveyard.

Meanwhile, transformation isn’t always easy. Members of the Democratic Alliance (DA) are up in arms over the Tshwane metropolitan council’s reported ban on white businesses. If the allegations are accurate, the DA would certainly seem to have a case that they will bring before the Constitutional Court. Meanwhile in a  pronouncement that is likely to be equally tendentious, the Black Management Forum  (BMF)  has argued that white women should be removed from the list of groups previously disadvantaged ”in terms of . . . employment equity legislation.” It is a bit hard for white women who benefitted in every imaginable way from apartheid suddenly stepping forward to claim their lots alongside the black South Africans on whose backs the Apartheid system built white privilege.

Finally, the M&G’s longtime rugby columnist Andrew Capostagno has a nifty piece on how this Rugby World Cup represents a “big chance” for the Springboks. He concludes his historically astute article by arguing that if the Boks achieve their considerable promise and “Win this one” South Africans “can forget, for a long, glorious moment, about politics.”