One of the most significant developments in South Africa’s economic rise under the National Party (NP)’s apartheid regime, both politically and economically was the establishment of the Atomic Energy Board (AEB).  The international socio-political climate that was emerging shortly after the NP’s electoral victory led to the AEB being designated as solely responsible for the production, processing and disposing of uranium (Cho, 2006:6).    In the culmination of the Cold War in the mid 19...

In November of 2009 the United Nations declared that 18 July will be known as Nelson Mandela International Day to coincide with Madiba’s birthday. In the spirit of Madiba, who said in 2009: “We can change the world and make of it a better place. It is in your hands to make a difference”, the day’s theme is: Change.

Just like Madiba spent 67 years fighting injustice, serving his community, country and the world, so too we ask you to serve 67 minutes helping your community, and tell us a...

"The ANC never freed us, they only took the chain from around our neck and put it on our ankles"- Rassool Snyman, Anti-Apartheid activist. 

In light of the aforementioned, after the African National Congress (ANC) seized a peaceful transition from the clutches of Apartheid, South Africans had been promised that both political and economic freedoms would be given to previously disadvantaged. The latter have been left with the right to vote but simultaneously left with several issues pertaining...

The level of unemployment in South Africa has been an implicit result of the post- Apartheid era that has evidently caused immense levels of inequality within South African society. Owing to the racialist policies implemented and the ANC's decision to abandon socialist for neoliberal economic policies has seen the levels of abject poverty and unemployment steadily increase after 1994. This paper seeks to explain how the adaptation of social democratic policies would see a shift in the current...

On Monday, 21 March 2011 South Africa was be celebrating the 51^st anniversary of the fateful 21 March 1960 Sharpville massacre. On that day in history a peaceful demonstration against the 1952 Native Laws Amendment Act, was scheduled to take place in all major cities and townships around SA. The 1960 protest march had been put together by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) to openly defy the former regime’s influx control and dompass (reference book) laws. At the time it was only Africans wi...

In 1997 ‘The White paper on the Transformation of Service Delivery’ aka Batho Pele (‘people first’), came into law. Like the name suggests, the former’s principal objective was to improve the standard of public service. The Batho Pele vision was backed by other Acts to further encourage compliance. On the contrary, in retrospect, like many other public policies, the desired outcome has not been achieved. The purpose of this piece is to review the Batho Pele vision, juxtaposing it wi...

Transitional justice is a process by which Transitional States employ a range of approaches to address past human rights violations. This process is usually done with in a legal and state framework that is aimed at achieving justice in a context where both victims and perpetrators are given an opportunity for justice and amnesty as a means of achieving national reconciliation. Post Apartheid South Africa is an ideal case study of a Transitional State; this is a result of the political comprom...

After reading the daily news paper with my morning coffee, I would always feel rather unsettled about the future of South Africa. The majority of South African news tends to focus on the negative aspects of our country. Naturally, I understand that the media is serves as a tool used to inform the citizens about developments that may affect them, warn them about the dangers and make them aware of crime, so there is no doubt that this service is crucial and necessary. However, as a result, some...