Republished – Zabalaza for Socialism

Adam Habib and the Politics of Opportunism

Ziyad Motala21 August 2026

There is something almost touching about Adam Habib’s faith in Helen Zille. https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2026-08-18-only-zille-can-save-joburg-ex-wits-vc-habib-says-da-mayoral-candidate-perfect-for-the-job/ Johannesburg, he tells us, can apparently be rescued by one woman. If Zille does not secure an overall majority, he warns, not merely Johannesburg but “the city and South Africa are doomed.” For the job of mayor, he pronounces her “perfect.” Perfect […]

FROM HUMANITARIANISM TO ORGANISED SOLIDARITY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST AFROPHOBIA

Keep Left20 August 2026

Claire Ceruti and Luke Sinwell Families sleep outside embassies and consulates wrapped in blankets against the winter cold. Beside them are plastic bags, suitcases and the few possessions they managed to carry from homes they may never return to. They are commonly described as people “returning home” or being “repatriated”. But these phrases conceal a […]

Is Afrophobia a simplistic framing?

Socialist Voice Newsletter of the Marxist Group of Namibia18 August 2026

A left-wing view does not say xenophobia in South Africa is “naturally” Africanist or that “black” people are inherently united. It says xenophobia is a product of racial capitalism, township political economy, state rhetoric, and social fragmentation — and its racialised pattern of targets reflects material conditions, not essential identities. The term “Afrophobia” is analytically […]

The Left’s Billionaire Problem

Vashna Jagarnath7 August 2026

Money, democratic control and the struggle over where power resides The growing political power of billionaires presents the left with a contradiction that it has not adequately confronted. The problem is not only that billionaires fund the right, purchase media platforms or use private wealth to influence governments. Very wealthy individuals and foundations are also […]

Cockroach Democracy: Unarmed and Dangerous

Arundhati Roy23 July 2026

Can all the people be fooled all the time? Can a country with a population of a billion-and-a-half be dragged around like a corpse forever? It cannot. The Cockroaches are out and about. For the first time in years, it feels wonderful to be Indian. Just when hope seemed lost, they came. Young roaches riding […]

‘The amabutho are back’: Abahlali warns of rising xenophobic violence

Thapelo Mohapi25 June 2026

I grew up in Bhambayi in Inanda, to the north of Durban. In 1993 more than two hundred people were killed in political violence between Inkatha and the ANC. In 1990, when I was eight, two friends of my father who were visiting from Lesotho were murdered. My brothers and I saw the bodies. In […]

Profits Up, People Down: The Dangerous Illusion of South Africa’s Growth Agenda

Christopher Rutledge25 June 2026

Cyril Ramaphosa and the Democratic Alliance (DA)—the two dominant forces within South Africa’s newly formed Government of National Unity (GNU)—have converged on a singular narrative: economic growth is the key to undoing centuries of apartheid colonial inequality. This mantra has become the cornerstone of the GNU’s public rhetoric and policy direction. Ramaphosa in particular has […]

Bearing Witness in the Age of Generative AI

Koketso Moeti12 June 2026

Pushing back against the assault on verifiable reality is a crucial undertaking in the pursuit of justice. The advent of generative AI has made it even harder to distinguish between what’s real and what isn’t, and also easy to claim what is real is fake. This threatens to undermine the very idea of “evidence,” which […]

How the 2027 Super El Niño Will Replicate the 1877 Global Famine

Sarah Connor12 June 2026

In the spring of 2026, oceanographers began tracking a massive pulse of warm water moving eastward beneath the surface of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This subsurface Kelvin wave, an ocean gravity wave that moves eastward along the equator and transports massive volumes of warm water, is now breaching the surface, signaling the rapid onset of […]

The SACP’s Conference of the Left

Richard Pithouse22 May 2026

In a moment in which silence appears as complicity the websites of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SACP show no sign of having issued a statement against March and March and the recent escalation of xenophobic rhetoric – often including classic fascist tropes – and street thuggery. For some time […]

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Category: Republished