William Gumede

The conventional wisdom among Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and (South African Communist Party) SACP strategists, and many other commentators, in business, civil society and opposition parties, is that exploding poverty should naturally strengthen the power of the Left within th

Many liberation and political movements that valiantly opposed authoritarian regimes often behave in markedly undemocratic ways when in power themselves.

This month it has been a moment of truth for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP): They have come to realise that they may have carried Zuma into the South African Presidency, but that that does not mean they will dominate policies in th

The bull that caused recent controversy in South Africa has now been sacrificed in Nongoma – with the approval of the courts – as part of the Ukweshwama ritual to offer symbolic thanks for the first crops of the season.

To be really effective, South Africa's newly envisaged National Planning Commission must operate like the command centre of a country at war, meticulously planning, not against invaders, but the transformation of the economy, as if the country’s future depended on it – which it does.

In poor countries, competent political leadership is a scarce skill that matters even more than in industrial nations. Industrial nations, where power is dispersed across the society, can tolerate bad leaders better. Better still, bad leaders can generally be outvoted.

Shouting ‘racism’ to sideline rivals for self-enrichment at the expense of the public good – or to deflect attention from our own wrongdoing – is simply wrong.

Almost every developing country that has become rich since the Second World War has done so by lifting the majority of people out of poverty collectively and not the elite only.

The now daily, but empty anti-corruption rhetoric and slogans from our political leaders could have been laughed off as a joke, if the consequences of corruption on society were not so devastating. To start with, we must declare corruption a national emergency.

As is now becoming increasingly clear from the many court trials, towards the end of the presidential term of Thabo Mbeki, elements of the security apparatus increasingly started to behave like their apartheid predecessors in their muzzling of rivals and legitimate criticisms of the state, and in