Thabo Mbeki: I am an African

Timbuktu: Another Epic Zuma Fail

Vashna Jagarnath, The Con

On the first day of 2015 Times Live published a piece titled The Sands of indifference bury Mbeki’s Timbuktu dream. It detailed another epic failure of Zuma’s presidency. The article explained that Zuma’s government has dumped the Timbuktu Trust that was set up by President Thabo Mbeki. It declared that the dissolution of the trust, through which, “South Africa channelled its aid for the preservation of priceless documents and artefacts, marks the final chapter for one of former president Thabo Mbeki’s proudest legacies.”

A Fanonian Reading of Suresh Robert’s ‘Fit to govern: the native intelligence of Thabo Mbeki’

by Phumlani Majavu

“Well, if one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the Judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected –those, precisely who need the law’s protection most! – and listens to their testimony. Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any black man, any poor person – ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice and then you will know not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it.” Baldwin (1972, p. 130)

Thabo Mbeki's 'I am an African' Speech

Chairperson,

Esteemed President of the democratic Republic,

Honourable Members of the Constitutional Assembly,

Our distinguished domestic and foreign guests,

Friends,

On an occasion such as this, we should, perhaps, start from the beginning.

So, let me begin.

I am an African.

I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land.

Address by Thabo Mbeki at the 14th Kgosi Lebone Molotlegi I memorial lecture, Phokeng (16/10/2010)

Mmemogolo Semane Molotlegi,

Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi and members of the royal family of the Bafokeng,

Distinguished guests:

Last month, September 2010, and as we have done during many years of our liberation, we celebrated our national Heritage Day and Heritage Month.

Today's gathering here at Phokeng affords me the possibility to ask the simple question - when we celebrate Heritage Day and Heritage Month, exactly what are we celebrating?