Articles
Dr Shock has died in Canada
By Zubeida JafferFacebook posts are aflush with news of the passing of Aubrey Levin, known in South Africa as “Dr Shock.” He was an apartheid-era military psychiatrist known for administering electric shocks and powerful drugs to homosexual soldiers and other people...
A little baby I once met
By Zubeida JafferI arrived early at the District Six Homecoming Centre for the launch of lawyer Linda Zama’s book. The room was quiet; the stage still, the smell of coffee and paper in the air. In a corner, hunched over a laptop, was Linda. Seeing her felt like...
Two Muslim Views journalists win Story of the Year Award for expose of the sale of fake holy water in South Africa
By Zubeida JafferTwo Muslim Views journalists Mahmood Sanglay and Yaseen Bardien took the top award at the AVBOB Forum of Community Journalists (FCJ) Excellence Awards in Centurion recently. Not only did they win the Story of the Year Award but also became the first...
The Day Rugby Came To Soweto – The Township That Never Got To Play The Game
By Len KalaneBefore the singing started, before the green and gold swallowed Soweto whole, there was a number worth sitting with: this was only the fourth time in history the Springboks had played a Test at FNB Stadium, and the first since 2013. In a rugby calendar...
Siya the Captain to Siya the Colossus
By Taz CassimThere are moments in sport when a player becomes something larger than the game. On Saturday night in Soweto, in front of 85,967 people at FNB Stadium, Siya Kolisi did not simply lead the Springboks to another victory over the All Blacks. He reminded...
A woman fully reclaimed after being written out of history
By Zubeida JafferOn Friday night (28 August,2026), the University of the Western Cape (UWC) conferred a posthumous honorary doctorate on Charlotte Mannya Maxeke in the presence of her family and an array of outstanding doctoral recipients. The recognition came 125...
The Story About a Cave
By Zubeida JafferNine years ago, in this month of August, I entered the Holy City of Mecca to perform the pilgrimage. (Read Sharing my haj experience, www.zubeidajaffer.co.za) During this time, I had the opportunity to travel to the Mountain of Light where the Holy...
Dr Desiree Ellis: The Architect of Banyana’s Golden Age
By Len KalaneA Cape Town schoolgirl who was once told football wasn't for her is now the only coach in history to have beaten Nigeria three times — and she has one more gruelling play-off gauntlet standing between Banyana Banyana and a third World Cup. On Thursday...
Beijing +30 African Women’s Movement lead a top-level intervention in South Africa’s anti-migrant narrative exposing online disinformation
By Hasina KathradaSenior African political leaders, diplomats, lawyers and researchers have launched a coordinated pushback against South Africa's increasingly hardline migration narrative, arguing that migrants are being scapegoated for governance failures while...
Development, Not Deportation: The Case for a SADC Marshall Plan
By Mavuso Msimang Last year, the South African government spent an estimated R500 million deporting 109,344 undocumented African migrants. Do the arithmetic, as one occasionally must in this line of work, and the figure comes to roughly R2,670 for every person...
Organisations launch campaign against Xenophobia, for African Unity
By Zubeida JafferClose to 80 community groups across South Africa and beyond are launching an effort to unite Africa and mobilise against xenophobia on the eve of Women’s Day, 8 August 2026. The coalition says rising anti‑migrant violence threatens African solidarity...
New U.S. Army Psychological Operations Company launched to “influence and persuade” Africans
By Zubeida JafferOn 15 July 2026, the U.S. Army formally activated a new psychological operations company dedicated to the African continent. The unit, Delta Company, 7th Psychological Operations Battalion (Special Operations) (Airborne), also uses the nickname...
Credit ratings are not fair towards African Economies
Africa Must Stop Exporting Wealth and Importing CreditworthinessBy Prof Nicky MorganAfrica finds itself in a peculiar and deeply consequential paradox. The continent possesses some of the world’s richest deposits of strategic minerals, yet remains among the least...
Dearest Madiba
I write this article to mark Mandela Day (18 July) and hope my words reach you wherever you are in the heavens. In this month 16 years ago (on 11 July 2010) you and Mam Graca floated across the field in a golf cart at Soccer City in Johannesburg, the first World Cup...
Where will this week take South Africans and Africans?
By Professor Nicky MorganHistorical solidarity creates a moral obligation to treat people humanely and fairly, but it does not require a state to surrender its responsibility to govern migration, protect public resources, or prioritize the constitutional rights of its...
An expensive lesson for the Western World
By Chloe MalulekeWhen the full text of the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran was released, analysts expecting the language of a balanced peace agreement found something rather different. What the document describes, point by...
March and March came to Wynberg on Saturday 20 June
By Zubeida JafferThe first anti-immigrant march in the southern suburbs of the Cape was set to start in Wynberg at 9a.m and end at Newlands at 3p.m. I am a resident of Wynberg and joined the gathered group shortly after 9a.m identifying myself as a reporter. The...
Remembering June 16
By Zubeida JafferTo protest against the killings of schoolchildren in Soweto on June 16, 1976,the people of the Cape joined the nationwide call for a stayaway four years later. This is their story.
A boy on a mat on the floor in Lagos
He grew up in one room. Not one room to himself — one room shared with nine brothers and sisters, in a polygamous family on Lagos Island, Nigeria. They slept on mats on the floor. His parents had nothing to spare. University tuition was an impossible dream. He was...
J M Coetzee praises NWASA as controversy over Jerusalem Festival exchange grows
Nobel laureate J M Coetzee backs NWASA amid growing controversy over Gaza, cultural boycotts and the Jerusalem Festival exchange.
The meaning of the Phala Phala Concourt Decision
By Judge John Murphy After the recent judgment of the Constitutional Court concerning the Phala-Phala matter there are once again calls in the media for President Ramaphosa to resign from office. I sense a confusion regarding the judgement and thought it may be...
South African writers back Coetzee’s Boycott of Jerusalem Writers Festival
By Zubeida Jaffer The National Writers’ Association of South Africa (NWASA) has expressed its full support for the South African Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee’s decision to decline participation in the 14th International Writers Festival in Jerusalem. NWASA’s...
South Africa and Namibia Lead Africa on 2026 Press Freedom Index
South Africa and Namibia lead Africa in the 2026 Press Freedom Index, both ranking above the United States. Their standing reflects strong legal protections and media independence, even as global press freedom reaches its lowest level in 25 years.
New Johannesburg Centre to bridge knowledge gap on Islam in Africa
By Zubeida Jaffer A new research institution, the Centre for Islamic Research - Africa (CIRA), launched recently in Johannesburg to deepen understanding of Islam across the continent among South Africa’s two million Muslims. In a preface to its inaugural booklet, CIRA...
The Empire Has No Clothes
By Chloe MalulekeThere is a particular kind of moment in history when the powerful, in their arrogance, do something so naked, so unfiltered, that the mythology holding power together cracks in real time. The United States' war against Iran has been that moment. Not...
Art and Ubuntu Trust Launches Groundbreaking Book Series Elevating African Knowledge and Artists
By Zubeida Jaffer Johannesburg, March 26, 2026In a vibrant celebration of African intellectual heritage, the Art and Ubuntu Trust unveiled an expanded library of publications at the University of Johannesburg, positioning artists as vital thinkers, researchers, and...
Are the camels on the horizon?
By Zubeida JafferThe United Arab Emirates’ late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum once said when asked how he saw the future of his country:My grandfather rode a camel. My father rode a camel. I drive a Mercedes. My son drives a Land Rover. My grandson will also...
Choosing war yet again
By Fr David Neuhaus I write this with air raid sirens blaring in Jerusalem and Israeli war planes overhead. We are at war yet again. Israeli planes attacked Iran on Saturday morning, February 28,2026. The United States quickly joined in on the attack. Sites all over...
Fare thee well, Bra Joe
By Abbey MakoeBra Joe Latakgomo was a gentle giant of Black journalism. Orally, he was not a man of many words. Almost a reserved personality, he treated people with respect. Even his objects of scorn, such as apartheid and its white establishments, he condemned with...
Words can move mountains: Remembering Diana Ferrus
Poet Diana Ferrus has died. Her poem helped secure the 2002 return of Sarah Baartman’s remains from France to South Africa.