Affirmative action does not kill babies

Nikiwe Bikitsha

Nikiwe Bikitsha, Mail & Gaurdian

The academic and political commentator Steven Friedman wrote a very compelling piece that appeared on the South African Civil Society Information Service website last week, with the pithy title, “The real ticking time bomb is the black middle class”.

It was a prescient analysis of an anger that I experience, see and feel, and often am unable to articulate; I fail to grasp its genesis fully. It is an anger playing itself out with ever-greater frequency and in more visceral tones in the social media.

The Bloemhof incident: Affirmative action on death row

Siphokazi Magadla

Siphokazi Magadla, Al Jazeera

A water crisis in South Africa's northwestern town of Bloemhof has led to the deaths of three infants and scores of children and adults admitted to hospital for severe diarrhoea. Preliminary results indicate that the area's main reservoir was contaminated with the E. Coli bacteria which causes diarrhoea due to a sewage spillage. The town's mayor has since been fired by the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the municipal manager has resigned, and a task team composed of members of the provincial executive committee and the water and sanitation department has been set up to investigate the tragedy.