Audit of offensive names in Western Cape
“Proposed name changes of the identified names will be processed in accordance with the Western Cape policy for the Naming and Renaming of Geographical Features of 2015 and the South African Geographical Names Council Act of 1998.”
▻https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/audit-of-offensive-names-in-western-cape-13128665
#toponymie #Afrique_du_Sud #Cap #Le_Cap
Radical Agendas #1: South Africa - ROAPE
►http://roape.net
The set of essays initially entitled “South Africa: What Next?” that is accessible here over a number of weeks consists of five essays that, together with my introduction posted below, focus on various areas of political creativity currently being acted upon by various peoples, groups and fledgling movements in South Africa. It is complementary to an earlier set of essays on the wider southern Africa region entitled “Southern Africa – the liberation struggle continues” the title of which is self-explanatory and that included case-studies, by various writers, of Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa itself. This was a series first edited for the AfricaFiles “At Issue Ezine”, and then had been reproduced in ROAPE in March, 2011 as vol. 38, #127.
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Radical Agendas #2: Community Resistance from Below - ROAPE
►http://roape.net
Amongst the most studied and celebrated aspects of the anti-apartheid struggle during the 1980s in South Africa was the breadth and impact of community resistance (Ballard et al 2006; Buhlungu 2010).
The origins of that resistance came during the late 1970s and early 1980s when the working class, broadly conceived, was hit with a double blow. Emerging clusters of neoliberal capitalism privileged the opening up of global markets, increasing capital mobility and reorganising states to guarantee and catalyze ‘free market principles’ (Harvey 2005), while pushing for a flexible, insecure and informal labour regime (Chun 2009).
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Radical Agendas #3: The Numsa Moment - ROAPE
►http://roape.net
The Marikana massacre of 16 August 2012 triggered a wave of strikes across South Africa, culminating in an unprecedented uprising in the rural areas of the Western Cape. It also began a process of political realignment. The dramatic entry of the Economic Freedom Front (EEF) into parliament was to become the most spectacular. But could the historic decision of Numsa in December 2013 to withdraw its logistical support for the ANC and its mandate to the union’s leadership to form a United Front and Movement for Socialism, be of more long term significance? It certainly was the popular view on the left at the time (Satgar, 2014). The “Numsa moment”, one support group boldly proclaimed, “constitutes the beginning of the end for the ANC and its ambivalence towards neo-liberalism” (Democracy from Below, December 2013).
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Radical Agendas #4: Gender in South African Politics - ROAPE
►http://roape.net
Recently, the University of Cape Town (UCT) student organization #RhodesMustFall, displayed a banner proclaiming: “Dear History: This revolution has women, gays, queers, and trans. Remember that.” It was a profound declaration that the old politics of the left can no longer hold, and that the masculinist, male-dominated forms of oppositional politics that centred the male subject as the defining agent of transformation must be confronted.
To understand where this statement – which went viral on social media – comes from, we need to consider both the failures of the state-led democratic project and the modes of analysis and organisation on the left. An honest examination is especially timely as progressive politics is re-grouping around new formations ranging from political parties such as the Economic Freedom Fighters, to student movements, to broad front civil society arrangements such as the United Front. The women’s movement itself, to the extent that it ever existed in coherent form, has also seen several changes in the past two decades with the collapse of the Women’s National Coalition, the ever-increasing distance between the ANC Women’s League and feminists, and the emergence of a much wider range of organisations dealing with issues of violence and sexuality. Importantly, through initiatives such as the Feminist Table, connections are being forged between women’s organisations working at the brutal edge of the economic crisis in families, households and communities, and feminist thinkers.
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Radical Agendas #5: An Eco-Socialist Order in South Africa - ROAPE
►http://roape.net
n ecological transformation is required as part of a ‘new liberation struggle’ in South Africa. This involves a ‘just transition’ from the present fossil fuel regime that is moving us towards ecological collapse and catastrophe. The article suggests that the impetus to this ecological transformation is coming strongly from two aspects of the ecological crisis: accelerating climate change and the spread of toxic pollution of water, air, land and food that is experienced as ‘environmental racism’. The implication is that what Von Holdt and Webster (2005) conceptualised as a triple transition from democracy (economic liberalisation, political democracy and post-colonial transformation), requires a fourth dimension: an ecological transition to a society marked by a very different relation with nature, a relation combining social justice with ecological sustainability.
“new coalitions and forms of co-operation between both labour and environmental activists contains the promise of a new kind of socialism that is ethical, ecological and democratic.”
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Radical Agendas #6: Where to for South Africa’s Left? - ROAPE
►http://roape.net
n October 2015, South Africa was rocked by over two weeks (commencing 14th October) of student protests. These protests shut down most universities, led to violent confrontations between police and students (most notably at parliament and with a march of thousands of students on the Union Buildings), and vocalized demands that President ZUMA address the call for free higher education, “insourcing” and a moratorium on fee increases for 2016. Twenty-one years into post-apartheid democracy a new generation of university student activists openly rebelled against the ANC government’s neoliberal fiscal cutbacks of public universities and reclaimed the importance of “public goods.” The use of mass mobilisation and social media, such as #FeesMustFall, led some commentators to suggest the “Arab Spring Moment” had arrived in South Africa. Students themselves in their assemblies and messaging also discoursed in the language of revolution. This manifestation of resistance is far from over and cannot be isolated. It has to be located in the crisis of national liberation politics and renewal of a new South African left.
We are all Helen Zille. Or, why the West thinks that #colonialism was not all bad.
▻http://africasacountry.com/2017/03/we-are-all-helen-zille-or-why-the-west-thinks-that-colonialism-was-
In a series of tweets circulated earlier today, Helen Zille, who is Premier of the #Western_Cape (one of #South_Africa’s nine provinces) and the former leader of the country’s second largest political party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), asserted there are many positive aspects to colonialism. Zille, who is white, governs the Western Cape, which…
#POLITICS #Democratic_Allaince #Hellen_Zille #Hitler #Twitter
The end of colonialism, apartheid and Jim Crow have marked the global rise of liberal racism – what sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva calls “racism without racists”. Even when we do not openly endorse colonialism like Zille does, our works are filled with strategic silences, omissions and erasures that continue to sustain ideas of Western superiority.
Some scholars hint at the superiority of the political institutions of Western democracy. Others mention the “inevitable” rise of capitalism, seen always as a quintessentially Western achievement. Others still talk about the “advanced” cultural practices of “European modernity.” Even critical Western scholarship opposed to the neoliberal paradigm rarely acknowledges the persistence of whiteness and racial inequalities, often developing criticisms of the world of finance, the banks or the multinationals that underplay the role of race in these institutions. These coded forms of racism have contributed to consolidate white supremacy in the last few decades of neoliberal hegemony.
That edifice is now crumbling. The Zilles of the world are tired of beating around the bush. They want to speak openly about white superiority and do not want to feel uncomfortable for their views.
They believe that postcolonial countries have been given a chance but failed to assert their worth, denying the fact that neocolonial structures are just as sturdy as colonial ones. They are tired of “diversity talk,” it is all a sham in their opinion. They see a return to the “good old days” of fascism, colonialism, Jim Crow and apartheid as the way forward.
Ecological trap ensnares endangered African penguins
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/ecological-trap-ensnares-endangered-african-penguins
Penguin numbers in South Africa’s Western Cape have plummeted by around 80 percent in recent decades. Biologists chalked this decline up to the disappearance of their favorite prey species, anchovies and sardines, from the Western Cape penguins’ preferred feeding grounds to the west of their nesting sites. Overfishing and changes in the water chemistry – knock-on effects of climate change – pushed breeding shoals of these fish eastward or wiped them out entirely.
Les manchots d’Afrique australe victimes d’un « piège écologique »
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/biodiversite/article/2017/02/09/les-manchots-d-afrique-du-sud-victimes-d-un-piege-ecologique_5077325_1652692
Faute de comprendre les transformations des océans par la surpêche et le changement climatique, les animaux jeunes choisissent des habitats qui ne suffisent plus à les nourrir.
South Africa Raids Maersk, MSC in Shipping Collusion Probe - Bloomberg
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-28/south-africa-raids-global-shipping-companies-in-collusion-probe
South Africa’s Competition Commission searched the premises of six shipping companies including AP Moeller-Maersk A/S as part of an investigation into allegations that they colluded to fix incremental cargo rates between Asia and South Africa.
The antitrust regulator started raids on premises of local operations of Copenhagen-based Maersk and its Safmarine unit, Hamburg Sued Group, Mediterranean Shipping Co., Pacific International Lines Pte Ltd. and CMA CGM SA in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, it said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. The investigation was triggered by a tip-off from a member of the public, the Pretoria-based commission said.
Rearranging the furniture at Stellenbosch
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/02/rearranging-the-furniture-at-stellenbosch
Stellenbosch has been a crucial part of the decolonization drama that swept South Africa in 2015. The past year has highlighted how this town in the Western Cape struggles with the contradictions of its selective historical amnesia. Stellenbosch persists in allegorizing itself as a banal blend of pastoral and techno-futuristic progress, at the heart of […]
Out with the Old: Exploring the myth of the ‘new’ #South_Africa
▻http://africasacountry.com/out-with-the-old-exploring-the-myth-of-the-new-south-africa
In the past few weeks there has been much consternation about the de facto existence of the dompas in the Western Cape community of Worcester. The dreaded dompas was a.....
How much has really changed on #South_Africa’s wine #farms?
▻http://africasacountry.com/how-much-has-really-changed-on-south-africas-wine-farms
Sixty five years ago, Margaret Bourke-White traveled to South Africa, and spent some time in what are today known as the Worcester winelands, in the #Western_Cape. According to South African Tourism, still today “the largest wine growing area in South Africa, stretch from the Hex River Valley in the north to Villiersdorp in the […]
That #New_York_Times column about #Cape_Town
▻http://africasacountry.com/that-new-york-times-column-about-cape-town
Let me be clear, because some responses suggest I was not in my recent column for the International New York Times: from just about every assessment, the City of Cape Town and the #Western_Cape are consistently rated among the top performing South African metros and provinces respectively in terms of governance and levels of service delivery. That said, if the Democratic Alliance [which governs the city] had its way, this should be the only basis by which the metro and province it governs are to be assessed: relative to other metros and provinces. If the African National Congress had its way, Cape Town and the Western Cape are to be assessed independently, with no reference to the other metros and provinces the ANC itself (...)
#Business #HISTORY #OPINION #POLITICS #healthcare #housing #land #Patricia_de_Lille #sanitation #South_Africa #water
Switch on the lights | Groundup
►http://groundup.org.za/content/switch-lights
half the road deaths in the Western Cape are pedestrians. Lack of lighting as well as walkways across busy roads are likely among the causes of this.
#cartographie sociale et politique, #électricité #bidonvilles #afrique_du_sud
South Africa’s Vineyard Workers Are Ripe for Exploitation (Relevé sur le net)
►http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11870/no_warm_buzz_for_exploited_south_african_vineyard_workers
Many a business deal, romantic evening or other happy moments around the world have been sweetened by South African wine.
But as a new Human Rights Watch report called “Ripe for Abuse” details, the mostly black and poor workers who tend and harvest grapes for mostly white-owned wineries in South Africa’s fertile Western Cape live and work in horrendous and exploitative conditions. The report says vineyard workers “are among the most vulnerable people in South African society: working long hours in harsh weather conditions, often without access to toilets or drinking water... [T]hey earn among the lowest wages in South Africa, and are often denied benefits to which they are legally entitled.” (...)