Friday, May 30, 2025

News of the Day

A Journey through ANC History at the Luthuli Museum

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By Rebecca Redelmeier

A visit to the Luthili Museum prompts a reflection on the history of the African National Congress (ANC) by preserving the legacy of its ninth president, Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli. Chief Luthuli served as the ANC President from 1952-1967 and is celebrated for his commitment to opposing white minority rule in South Africa through peaceful means and organised resistance.

The museum was built on the grounds of Chief Luthuli’s original home in Groutville, KwaZulu-Natal. It first opened its doors in 2004 and is funded by the Department of Arts and Culture. The original structure of the house has been preserved and just down the road lies the church where Chief Luthuli’s gravesite lies.

In 1936, Luthuli, who had been working as a teacher, was elected chief of  a Zulu tribe in Groutville. In 1945, he joined the ANC, just three years before the National Party came into power and began to implement the disenfranchisement policies for which it would become notorious. Chief Luthuli motivated the party to pursue peaceful means of resistance. When he was elected ANC president in 1952, the National Party government refused to allow him to hold both the presidency and the title of chief. Though the government revoked his chieftainship, the community resisted and continued to view him as their leader.

During most of the time that Chief Luthuli served as ANC president, he was banned by the government from leaving the Groutville district under the Suppression of Communism Act. Even so constrained, Chief Luthuli continued to lead the movement in organised and non-violent resistance. He was the first ANC leader to call for an international boycott of South African goods and was visited by international leaders, including Robert F. Kennedy. In 1960, he became the first African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At the time, his movement ban was only temporarily lifted for ten days so that he could travel to Oslo to receive the award.

Chief Luthuli died in 1967 while he was still serving as ANC president. Though the formal report on his death states that he was hit by a train near his home, both the autopsy of the body and context of his death suggest that story to be unlikely. There continue to be calls to re-examine his cause of death as many believe that it was a planned attack by the Apartheid government.

Today, Chief Luthuli is regarded as one of the key contributors to South African democracy. He advocated for a bill of rights and believed a constitutional court would uphold the ideals of the nation. Though he died before either were realised, his work paved the way for the ANC leaders who succeeded him. Today, the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg bears the name of Luthuli House in his honour.

Open Data revamps Durban city websites

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Image: Sophie McManus, Programme Lead (far right), meets with a group of students from the School for International Training (SIT).

By Hannah Green

What would happen if it was possible to text the government and receive a personal response? What changes would we see if community information was recorded and distributed in a more accessible manner? What would be the impact of teaching data analytics in school?

These are the types of social data questions the team at Open Data grapples with.

Open Data is a non-profit civic technology lab located in Durban. The organisation’s mission is to share knowledge in mediums and languages that are accessible to all citizens. They recognise that technology can play a role in connecting people and communicating important information. Their final products can take the form of graphics, websites, reports or workshops that share research results with local communities.

“What we start with isn’t a platform or a tool or a solution. We start with a problem. It starts from capturing user needs,” explained Sophie McManus, Programme Lead. She said that Open Data’s projects usually arise from concerns raised by the government, non-profit organizations, and the media or community members.

One of the team’s current projects, codenamed Durban Answers, is to revamp local government websites. McManus said that ordinary people found the current sites difficult to interact with and lacked information needed by the public.

“We are going to take all the information on government websites and turn it into a more usable format,” she explained. To do that, Open Data needs to collect information on what people want to know.

For this, Open Data uses methods like SMS polls but McManus also noted that technology excludes many South Africans.

“Many people have the problem of access to Internet or to data. They have, I believe the term is ‘dummy phones,’ that don’t have (web) access,” she said, “What we have found is that people who have access to technology and are comfortable using it are the people most likely to answer in our campaigns.”

As a result Open Data has taken information gathering offline, holding meetings and workshops for each project. Recently, the Durban Answers project team met with a range of people, from fishermen to businesspeople, to see “what information they need and how we can bring it to them,” according to McManus.

The team also holds workshop throughout the year to engage techies and non-techies alike. Their monthly meet-ups feature guest speakers, hackathons and collaborations on projects. McManus said that this promotes Open Data’s mission to be accessible to all South Africans.

You can read more about Open Data, explore their meet-up schedule and share project ideas with the organisation here.

Police raid home of author Jacques Pauw

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WATCH: Hawks raid home of author Jacques Pauw

Hawks members raid Jacques Pauw’s home — video via News24

On Wednesday afternoon, Jacques Pauw, South African author of the book, The President’s Keepers which examines former president Jacob Zuma’s years in office, had his home raided by three members of the Hawks police unit. The raid received widespread news coverage in local media and prompted criticism from media freedom lobbyists. The South African National Editors Forum has said it will request a meeting with new police minister Bheki Cele to protest the raid. After obtaining a search warrant from a Cape Town magistrate, the officers arrived at Pauw’s home looking for documents. The search relates to charges laid against Pauw by the country’s State Security Agency (SSA). Pauw cooperated with the police.

Yussuf Adam on the assassination of Ruth First

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By Jacqueline Flynn

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE— “It took one-second and boom. I don’t know how I did it, but I broke through the door,” says Mozambican academic Yussuf Adam as he describes the day almost three decades ago when his friend and colleague Ruth First was assassinated.

First was assassinated in 1982 when the ANC was working out of Mozambique and was being aggressively pursued by the South African Apartheid government. A parcel containing C-4 explosive was delivered to the office where she and Adam were working.

Adam, now a faculty member at the Centre for African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, said First’s committed political activism and her role as a journalist and writer in South Africa meant she was targeted by the South African government. In South Africa at various times she had been banned, arrested and held in solitary confinement. She remained in the sights of the South African government after she moved back to England, and then to Mozambique where she became research director at the Centre for African Studies.

Though many details of Ruth’s death are still unknown, the man responsible for making the bomb has been identified as Craig Williamson. Adam states that Williamson won’t say who gave him the orders but that the government of Mozambique has talked with him several times.

In a meeting with Adam last week, he described First as a larger than life personality. “She would walk into a room and everyone payed attention to her. She would ask you about everything — even your dog. Why would she care about my dog?” Adam said.

First was a mentor to Adam and an adored friend.

Reflecting on the violence of the period, Adam stressed the importance of preventing war again. Adam said, “No matter what you study: biology, journalism, mathematics: it’s all a study of different forms of reality for us to live together. That’s the biggest thing: to prevent war again.”

Read more on Ruth First here: http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/ruth-heloise-first

Taken by Hannah Green, Yussuf Adam giving a tour of Eduardo Mondlane University to a group of SIT students.

The Revival of South Africa’s Rand

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Main image: Currency tracker website xe.com provides a graphic representation of the upward movement of the rand in recent months.

By: Kamilah Tom

DURBAN – Following the resignation of Jacob Zuma as South Africa’s president and the swearing in of Cyril Ramaphosa as the country’s new head of state, the rand on Friday reached its strongest level in three years. 

The dramatic gain, at one point reaching R11.50 to the US dollar, followed the appointment of the new president on Thursday evening, when the former trade unionist turned businessman was sworn into office.

President Ramaphosa, 65, has promised to fight to undo the corruption that the country has endured while under Zuma’s leadership and to gain the confidence of foreign investors by repairing the country’s failing state-owned entities.

The rand is expected to continue to rise following Ramaphosa’s delivery of the State of the Nation Address this evening. The government has indicated that the country’s 2018 Budget speech will be delivered in parliament next week.

Zuma Resigns, Ramaphosa to Take Over

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Main Photo: MPs seen on South African TV channel, eNCA, shortly before the parliamentary session was set to begin this afternoon.

By Rebecca Redelmeier

Following President Jacob Zuma’s resignation last night, South Africa was today waiting for parliament to elect the country’s next leader. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa took over as the acting president of South Africa immediately after Zuma’s resignation. He was expected to be officially elected as the new president of South Africa in parliament this afternoon.  

Ramaphosa has been deputy president of South Africa since 2014, and president of the ruling party since December 2017 when he won a succession battle against Jacob Zuma’s former wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. 

The presidential election this afternoon will replace a vote of no confidence that had been scheduled to be held in parliament today. The vote of no confidence motion was  proposed by the opposition EFF, the Economic Freedom Fighters, who also called for the dissolution of parliament and for new national elections.

Prior to last night’s late-night resignation, the ANC parliamentary caucus had agreed that they would use their political majority to force him out in the EFF’s vote of no confidence. By resigning before the midnight deadline his party had given him, Zuma prevented the opposition from claiming victory for his departure.

Many South Africans have taken to social media to welcome Zuma’s resignation but some, particularly in Zuma’s home province of Kwazulu-Natal, have expressed unhappiness. 

Zuma’s resignation comes after months of allegations of corruption against him. During his nine years as president of South Africa, allegations piled up accusing him of permitting the wealthy Gupta family to have undue influence over decisions of government, and of allowing inappropriate state spending on his personal home.

Even as Zuma offered his resignation, he remained adamant that he had done nothing wrong, and that the ANC had treated him unfairly by failing to tell him what they thought he had done wrong. 

“I serve in my capacity as President of the Republic of South Africa within the prism of our much acclaimed Constitution, whose foundational values I fully subscribe to,” Zuma said during his resignation speech last night.

Ramaphosa is expected to deliver the State of the Nation address on Friday when he will speak to his vision for South Africa’s future.

UPDATE: February 15, 5:04 p.m. Cyril Ramaphosa was elected this afternoon as the president of South Africa. He was sworn in following the vote and will deliver the State of the Nation Address on Friday.

Cape Town water crisis puts DA party under pressure

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News of the day from Timeslive.co.za:

Cape Town water crisis: crossing state and party lines isn’t the answer

By Hannah Green

Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille, Democratic Alliance (DA), has been stripped of her responsibilities for her ineffective response to the city’s water crisis. This comes at a critical moment for the DA, which just recently overcame years of minimal political representation to gain power in the Western Cape Province.

In response to De Lille’s removal, the DA political party has taken over the city’s water task force. While this article addresses the constitutional implications of a political party stepping in to govern in place of an elected official, this crisis also has severe implications for the DA.

In a class discussion with Nicole Graham, DA Councillor and Deputy Leader, she explained how this removal could affect the party’s future. The DA is drawing criticism for removing the popular De Lille, which could reduce votes for the party in the Western Cape — the only province they have been able to capture since the party’s formation in 2000. After collecting approximately 22% of the vote in the last national election, Graham said this crisis could contribute to a decline in votes for the DA, hurting their role as the nation’s main opposition party.

Stellenbosch man revives interest in area demolished under apartheid

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AISHA HAUSER

“Almost half a century ago‚ Wilfred Damon was forcibly removed from his home in Stellenbosch because of the colour of his skin.

The 66-year-old retired teacher will return on Saturday to host a guided walking tour of Die Vlakte‚ where he will share memories of the Boland home he was forced to leave.

“The new generation‚ some of them don’t even know about it‚” Damon said on Tuesday‚ explaining that the walking tour initiative came about after his daughter‚ Ilze Wolff‚ was curious about where he grew up.”

 

Read full story here.

Cape Town mortuaries cut waiting times for Muslims

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By Olivia Decelles

Waiting periods for the release of Muslim bodies at Cape Town mortuaries have been cut by new measures put in place after complaints by the Muslim Judicial Council last month.

Council representatives were told at a meeting with the provincial health department on Tuesday that the allocation of more resources to the mortuaries had resulted in a halving of the waiting time.

The department previously undertook to release bodies between six and seven days after admission to mortuaries, but the judicial council had asked that the time be shortened for Muslims, to allow quicker burial as required by Muslim rites.

The new measures have reduced to an average of 3.5 days the time from admission to the release of bodies, said Western Cape MEC for health Nomafrench Mbombo.

The health department said the province had employed extra forensic pathology assistants and was appointing additional forensic pathologists and medical registrars to mortuaries.

This article was first published on TimesLive

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