OLIVER TAMBO CENTENARY LECTURE
FOURWAYS
20 October 2012
Joel Netshitenzhe
The celebration of the lives of Presidents of the ANC constitutes more than just an opportunity to learn about history. Neither is it merely to marvel at the stars which rendered much light through the pall of darkness that apartheid colonialism cast over our country and its neighbourhood.
These celebrations are, in part, to express our appreciation of the sacrifices that have made it possible for us to stand tall as . . . Continue reading this article
By Thabo Mbeki
March 21, 2016
[Last year, I wrote to a comrade to engage him on an article he had written in one of the local newspapers to engage him on one of the issues he raised, i.e. as a country, “we self-imposed a [neo-liberal] structural adjustment programme” in 1996. We reproduce the letter as a two part series with the comrade’s permission. Part II will be published on Monday next week.]
Part I
Dear Comrade Evaristo*
In your article, you refer to our adoption of the GEAR document . . . Continue reading this article
By Thabo Mbeki
March 14, 2016
Annually Statistics South Africa (Statssa) publishes a very comprehensive Report on Mortality and Causes of Death in South Africa.
In this context it is necessary to keep in mind that Statssa prepares its Report on the basis of documentation (‘death notices’) it receives from the Department of Home Affairs.
This is because this is the Department which has the statutory authority to receive and keep reports of births, deaths and marriages.
It is also necessary . . . Continue reading this article
Source: Selected Writings of Alexandra Kollontai, Allison & Busby, 1977;
https://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1921/prostitution.htm
Translated: by Alix Holt.
Comrades, the question of prostitution is a difficult and thorny subject that has received too little attention in Soviet Russia. This sinister legacy of our bourgeois capitalist past continues to poison the atmosphere of the workers’ republic and affects the physical and moral health of the working people of Soviet Russia. It . . . Continue reading this article
By Thabo Mbeki
March 7, 2016
Towards the end of 2015 I sent the communication below to a fellow African to respond to some comments he had made on the matter of ‘Mbeki, HIV 7 AIDS’. We publish this as part of the series we have been carrying on various on the ‘Mbeki Presidency.’
In 2002 a few of us here in South Africa wrote a booklet entitled “Castro Hlongwane…”, and sub-titled it “HIV/AIDS and the Struggle for the Humanisation of the African”.
AN OVERVIEW
Here is . . . Continue reading this article
By Thabo Mbeki
February 29, 2016
Much has been written about how much the so-called international community expected the new South Africa born in 1994 to lead the campaign for respect of human rights especially in Africa. The first major test which faced our late President Mandela in this regard was at the 1995 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in New Zealand.
Here President Mandela came under great pressure publicly to condemn the Nigerian Abacha military government, especially . . . Continue reading this article
By Thabo Mbeki
February 22, 2016
Historically, with regard to the Zimbabwe liberation struggle, the ANC had good relations with ZAPU and none with ZANU when it broke away from ZAPU. This was a product of a continuous process in Zimbabwe which had started with the establishment of the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress in that country and the membership in the South African ANC of Zimbabwe students and workers while they were studying and working in South Africa.
ANC relations with ZANU
Despite . . . Continue reading this article
By Thabo Mbeki
February 15, 2016
On 12 September 2008, Justice Chris Nicholson, Judge in the then Natal Provincial Division of the High Court of South Africa, granted the order that:
“It is declared that the decision taken by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) during or about 28 December 2007 to prosecute the applicant (Jacob Zuma), a copy of which is annexed to the applicant’s founding affidavit as annexure “A” thereto, is invalid and is set aside.”
Celebrating this decision, . . . Continue reading this article
By Thabo Mbeki
February 8, 2016
For many years now, some at home and abroad have propagated the view that during the period I was President of the Republic, I abused my power especially to compromise the proper functioning of our criminal justice system, with the objective to advance particular political objectives.
Specifically the charges have been made that I intervened with the relevant state organs in one instance to prohibit the prosecution of the late former National Commissioner of Police, . . . Continue reading this article
One of the least known facts is how many Charterist political parties there are in South Africa's National Assembly of the Fifth Democratic Parliament. Perhaps rightly, it is a moot point given how insignificant any party's subscription to the Freedom Charter may seem in the public discourse in recent times.
Charterist formations are the formations who subscribe to the Freedom Charter. Although some, even within the ANC, often mistake the Freedom Charter to be the ANC's intellectual property, history . . . Continue reading this article