A few good whites: Will civil society take Dr Ramphele back?

Sisonke Msimang

Sisonke Msimang, The Daily Maverick

Ramphele’s assumption that she will be accepted into civil society, where she can continue her project of ‘active citizenship’ without having to be directly accountable to a real live constituency, speaks volumes. The good doctor is not wrong in this regard. Sadly, many civil society groups will accept her because the sector is not yet robust enough, not yet racially secure enough to tell prominent blacks (and whites) where to get off when they mess up.

Mamphela Ramphele reflects tragedy of Black Consciousness

Pallo Jordan, Business Day

THOUGH it came as no surprise, I was nevertheless a bit saddened by the announcement this week that Mamphela Ramphele was leaving politics after being expelled from Agang SA, the political party she founded. Ramphele was among a generation of young black intellectuals who came to the fore during the political ice age that descended on South Africa in the aftermath of the Rivonia trial.

The thaw that came after they parted ways with the National Union of South African Students owed much to their youthful courage that rejected both the repressive racism of the National Party government and patronising liberalism. After establishing the South African Students Organisation, inspired by black consciousness, they mobilised students at tertiary institutions established in pursuance of Hendrik Verwoerd’s grand apartheid, turning many into bastions of the liberation movement. Ramphele’s personal contribution earned her the wrath of the apartheid authorities and a deportation order.

The Politics of the Black Middle Class

Mandisi Majavu

by Mandisi Majavu, SACSIS

Before the 2009 general elections, political pundits predicted that a shift of black electoral support from the African National Congress (ANC) to Congress of the People (COPE) was inevitable. It was further pointed out that this shift was going to occur along class lines; we were told that the black middle class perceived COPE as the political party that could represent its class interest. Although COPE won about seven percent of the national vote in the 2009 elections, the internecine feud among its leaders has effectively made the party politically irrelevant.