Voices from SA

This is a repeat of an episode published in early 2018. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances I was left without my planned guest for this week.

Ronnie is a founder member of the ANC's armed wing Umkhonto we sizwe and a former government minister.

Ronnie had an article published in the Daily Maverick online magazine on May 14 entitled "A curate's egg of an election" where he looks at some of the trends in the recent South African election around low voter turnout, low voter registration and the feeling of apathy that seems to have descended on the South African electorate.

Read the article here.

I thought it would be interesting to place this election in the context of the liberation struggle and get a sense from Ronnie of some of the challenges facing the ANC.

I spoke to Angelo two days before the South African general election. Angelo is a political analyst, writer and head of research at ASRI. Angelo has worked as an academic and broadcaster before taking up his current post.

We chatted about South Africa's political progress over the last 25 years, the state of the democratic project and some of the challenges facing our political structures such as the party list system and literacy. And the weakness of the main opposition parties and the incapacity of these parties to make significant inroads into the ANC support base despite years of government failure at many levels.

Angelo speaks about his hope in the youth while at the same time noting the extremely low youth registration figures for this election cycle.

Read more about ASRI here.

My guest this week is veteran South African investigative journalist Sam Sole. He is the co-managing partner of the amaBhungane, a non-profit investigative journalist team that has its roots in the Mail and Guardian newspaper.

I met Sam in Durban the mid-1990s when he was a reporter for the Sunday Tribune. 

The amaBhungane team has played a major role in uncovering various aspects of state capture among other things.

We discussed how the amaBhungane team operates, how it chooses which stories to cover and then also some of the challenges facing journalism in south Africa and across the continent.

I was interested to hear how the amaBhungane are shifting focus to corporate South Africa. And also getting a sense of how the team works and the importance of having time to pursue stories to the end. A luxury missing from many newsrooms today around the world.

Read all about amaBhungane here.

Gabi Ncobo describes herself as a disruptor. As a curator she wants to unlock new ways of thinking about art. She describes herself as an artist, curator and educator but is wary of being labelled or put into a particular professional box. She wants that freedom that comes without mainstream job titles.

Gabi was born in Umlazi, a township south of Durban. She studied art at one of only two township art schools at the time and then went on study art, and curatorial practice.

She recently returned to South Africa after spending 18 months in Berlin curating the Berlin biennial. Before that she co-curated the 32nd  Sao Paulo biennale.

Dr. Meriting Thokoane is a prosthsodontist, lecturer and traditional healer. She is currently doing an MA in Maxillofacial Prosthetics Rehabilitation through Kings College in London.

We chatted about her path into dentistry. We touched on some of the technical and psychological aspects of her work. Many of her patients have terrible head and neck damage that require her specialised technical support, but who are also in deep psychological distress due to the nature of their injuries.

We chatted about the joy and fulfilment she gets from her patients and students alike.

Meriting also speaks about her journey to becoming a traditional healer and the strength she gets from that.

I chatted to Frank a few months back when he was travelling through South-East Asia searching for "…the radical ubuntu that connects the marginalised around the world." We had a great chat and decided then to have a pre-election catch-up once the election was nearing.

Frank has been an activist and organiser for most of his adult life and offers a unique perspective on our current state and the future.

So we chatted a  little about ubuntu and about his journey through Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. We chatted more about the current rather depressing state of the nation. "The centre is not holding". And we chatted a lot about his hope for the future and the possibilities for activism and change that come from a time of crisis. "Never become despondent and always be alive and looking for opportunities to engage and organise."

Ebrahim Fakir is the Programme Director for Auwel Socio-Economic Research Unit (ASRI). He is also a well-know policy analyst and political commentator.

Ebrahim grew in Lenasia south of Johannesburg (.."because I could not live anywhere else."). He later studied English Literature at Wits University before stints at IDASA, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and in the Legislation and Oversight Division of the South African parliament.

We chatted about a range of issues including the crisis of leadership facing the three main political parties, the inconsistency of policy as these parties vye for political power, the need for the ANC to push for growth if its welfare agenda is going to continue, and the importance of a functioning and empowered civil service that serves all the citizens of South Africa.

Find out more about ASRI here.