South Africa’s Impossible Farewell
By Mphuthumi Ntabeni It has become, for me, an unexpectedly painful thing to watch the African National Congress hold its political events. Once, these gatherings crackled with a kind of historic electricity — the
Mphuthumi Ntabeni
Mphuthumi Ntabeni is trained in built environment, reads literature, history and philosophy. He lives in Cape Town. He has written two historical novels, The Broken River Tent & The Wanderers.
A Billboard Blitz of Bad Faith
OP-ED| Politics What has just happened on the public roads of Johannesburg, the sudden appearance of 83 massive billboards proclaiming “Welcome to the most race-regulated country in the world” just days before the
South African Economic Development is Slowly Turning the Tide But Political Dangers Still Amass
By Mphuthumi Ntabeni For much of the past decade, South Africans have been caught between despair and déjà vu. Power cuts darkened homes and factories, freight trains rusted on their rails, and the
If Starlink Wants to Operate in South Africa, It Must Respect South African Law
South Africa’s stand-off with Starlink is more than a licensing dispute. It belongs to a far larger global story of the growing power of multinational tech giants, the deepening concentration of wealth,
WHAT IS AFRICA TO THE WORLD
Introduction After experiences of systemic oppression of transatlantic slavery, colonialism and apartheid this is a perennial question for Africa: What is Africa to the world? It might seem straightforward. Worse still, it is
A City Still Divided by Spatial Apartheid
By Mphuthumi Ntabeni Of all the Cape Town City mayors I have lived under, I have a soft spot for Geordin Hill-Lewis. That is why I was so deeply disappointed when, in a