Opinion – Zabalaza for Socialism

TOWARDS A CONFERENCE OF THE LEFT: THOSE MAKING THE CALL NEED TO ANSWER CRITICAL QUESTIONS

Brian Ashley14 May 2026

South Africa is living through a deepening social crisis. Unemployment, inequality, hunger, state decay, ecological destruction, and violence continue to define everyday life for millions. The political formations that once claimed to represent the aspirations of the working class have lost legitimacy, while the Right – both neoliberal and authoritarian – has grown stronger. In […]

RESPONSE TO THE CONTRADICTIONS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY

Lebohang Phanyeko13 May 2026

The inclusion of right-wing populist formations in the South African Communist Party (SACP) ‘Conference of the Left’ to be held at the end of the month alongside formations such as the African National Congress (ANC) and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), can only escalate rather than resolves the deep contradictions facing the South African left […]

The Architecture of Continuity: How One Magistrate’s Gavel Speaks for a Whole System

Suliman Rajah21 April 2026

A single sentencing in April 2026 reveals the apartheid logic still running through South Africa’s courts, its water pipes, its power grid, its housing policies, and its hospitals. I. The Core Argument The April 2026 sentencing of Julius Malema is not an aberration. It is not the act of a single biased magistrate. It is […]

Back to the Stone Ages

Charlie Kimber7 April 2026

In his book, Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost, Joe Allen analyses why President Lyndon Johnson decided on all-out war in Vietnam rather than make a deal that was on offer with nationalist forces. He writes, “The Johnson administration chose war because anything less than a total victory of U.S. imperialism would be seen […]

Zionism, anti-Semitism and eugenics

Terry Bell31 March 2026

The conflation of the religio-nationalist ideology of Zionism not only with Judaism and the nation state of Israel, but also with antisemitism, continues to be widely promoted. Yet the terminology and the manner of its use grew out of the pseudoscientific racism that flourished in the 19th Century. This came in response to the humanist […]

“Bombing never leads to positive regime change”

Charlie Kimber31 March 2026

Mediapart, the French leftist website, has an interview with Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago and author of the most-referenced book on the effects of air attacks throughout history. He says, “The carpet bombing of Iran will not achieve its goals, even if the regime has been decapitated.” I post a […]

Whose Growth?

Suliman Rajah31 March 2026

We do not seek to grow the economy. That statement, within the narrow confines of the present, is heresy. It is the ultimate rejection of the gospel according to the economists, the ministers, and the commentators who see only percentages and indices where we see suffering. Their eternal plea is for “growth,” for “investment,” for […]

Beyond the Script: Why the State of the Nation Needs a Rupture, Not Reform

Brian Ashley11 February 2026

As Cyril Ramaphosa prepares to deliver yet another State of the Nation Address, the ritual repeats itself. Big business demands “confidence.” Ratings agencies insist on “discipline.” Trade union federations and NGOs submit carefully worded proposals about what the President “should prioritise.” Once again, we will be told that progress is being made, that stability is […]

The death of politics in South Africa.

Zwelinzima Vavi11 February 2026

We are underestimating the devastating impact of the death of politics in South Africa. Not politics as elections, conferences or speeches, but politics as the conscious, organised participation of ordinary people in shaping their collective future. We have never honestly analysed how the “big man” phenomenon hollowed out our democratic culture. The towering moral authority […]

Mazibuko Jara | Why the SACP needs to focus beyond the Alliance

Mazibuko Jara3 February 2026

Dinga Sikwebu’s article in last week’s City Press (“SACP’s umms and ahhs: Holes in motivations to contest elections”, Sun 18 Jan 2026, https://www.news24.com/citypress/voices/dingwa-sikwebu-sacps-umms-and-ahhs-holes-in-motivations-to-contest-elections-20260117-1174) lands a necessary challenge: the SACP’s decision to contest the 2026 local government elections is politically significant, but it currently reads as a half-step — an “umming and ahhing” posture that may […]

News

Category: Opinion