Police are getting away with murder

by Imraan Buccus, The Mercury 

The difference between our laws and policies and the realities on the ground has reached crisis proportions

THE COMMISSION of inquiry into the Marikana massacre is revealing the extent of the crisis in our policing. We have learnt that there was widescale torture after the massacre and that weapons were planted near the bodies of the slain miners.

What would Biko have done?

by Imraan Buccus, The Mercury, 19 September 2012

SOUTH Africa is going through a tough time politically. Having commemorated the anniversary of Steve Biko’s death last week, I thought it appropriate to dwell on the reflections around Biko and what this means for the crisis of leadership that we face in SA. Important I think, especially in a city central to the Biko story.

September 12 has become something of an unofficial day of remembering Steve Biko and reflecting on his legacy. Amidst growing anger in activist circles about attempts to “privatise” the right to remember Biko it is pleasing to note the diversity of speakers and events. Barney Pityana, Biko’s close comrade and the man who actually coined the phrase “black man, you’re on your own”, spoke in Pretoria. Here in Durban the eminent philosopher Dr Percy More spoke to my students and in Cape Town the great Nigerian writer, Ben Okri, spoke.

Opposing ‘tenderpreneurs’ in a democratic SA

By Imraan Buccus, October 2011 - The contradictions and levels of hypocrisy are in SA are stark. Nonetheless politics in SA is interesting and mind -boggling. But, then again, that old Chinese curse does make it clear enough that interesting times aren’t always good times. The Mercury

In the late nineties leading communists were driving the move towards privatization and the ‘restructuring of state assets’. In fact at one point in the nineties, it had become almost impossible to champion communism within the ranks of the SACP. Indeed a party member actually advocating communism was likely to be expelled from the party on the grounds of ill discipline. And in recent times, the communists are resisting the nationalizing of mines while some nationalist ‘tenderpreneurs’ demand nationalization with increasing hysteria. This must be more than a little confusing for many who would have thought that communists would naturally gravitate to, and align themselves with calls for nationalization while nationalists would oppose nationalization by all means necessary.

Contested Indian Identity in Contemporary South Africa

by Imraan Buccus, SACSIS, 2010

One hundred and fifty years ago the first indentured Indians were brought to South Africa to work in sugar cane fields. They were soon joined by ‘passenger Indians’ who came of their own free will to trade.

The indentured Indians were not the first Indians to be brought to South Africa. On the contrary, a significant number of Indians were brought to the Cape Colony as slaves, but their descendents became part of the groups classified as White and Coloured under apartheid.