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The conversation between Erich Hörl and Premesh Lalu draws on their extended conversation on efforts to link discordant temporal and spatial encounters with the idea of the university and how, more importantly, to care for the future of its educational responsibilities. While much of the debate on the university is focused on how it is affected by large-scale geopolitical shifts and the rapid expansion of technological resources, Hörl and Lalu bring into view a language of the university that holds to its promise in the sources of a founding supplement that may yet exhibit the potential for guiding the university through turbulent times ahead. This is a call for a retracing of the emergence of the complex hegemony of the master signifier in university discourse, and the potential to supersede it by way of a re-articulation of the desire for a concept of freedom borne out of the emancipation of the 19th-century institution of slavery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically evaluates the role of industrial–organizational psychology in post-apartheid South Africa, advocating for a transformative framework that addresses the socio-political and historical inequalities in the workplace. The article highlights how industrial–organizational psychology has traditionally focused on organizational efficiency, often aligned with capitalist interests, while overlooking the socio-historical forces shaping worker experiences, particularly related to race, gender, and class. By introducing the concept of worker subjectivity, the article calls for a reimagined industrial–organizational psychology that integrates critical perspectives from psychology and management studies to better understand how workers navigate their identities and agency within broader socio-political structures. The author emphasizes the need to address the emotional and psychological dimensions of worker experiences, especially in the South African context marked by the legacies of colonialism and apartheid. By focusing on worker subjectivity, industrial–organizational psychology can move beyond traditional quantitative methods and engage with the complexities of workplace inequality. This approach aligns industrial–organizational psychology with the broader mission of the Psychological Society of South Africa to promote socially just and inclusive practices. The article also calls for interdisciplinary collaboration and the reformation of industrial–organizational psychology education to better equip practitioners with the tools needed to address the realities of post-apartheid workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racial residential segregation is a noticeable feature of racially stratified countries such as South Africa, Brazil and the United States. Scholars of racial residential segregation have extensively studied the histories and current patterns of spatial segregation such as White areas, Black3 areas or migrant4 ethnic enclaves in urban spaces. In a racially stratified South African context, researchers have examined how colonial and Apartheid patterns of residential segregation impacted the post-Apartheid spatial demographic5 architecture. Scholars however have paid little attention to how migrants, particularly Black African migrants, are affected by patterns and experiences of racial residential segregation in South Africa. I address this lacuna by examining, through sustained observational data, racially segregated residential patterns of Black African migrants in two residential suburbs of Johannesburg, namely Yeoville and Hillbrow. Drawing on observational data, I argue that South Africa's neo-liberal self-settlement refugee policy pushes low-income and vulnerable Black African migrants to concentrate in overcrowded inner-city ghettoes alongside Black South Africans. Based on African migrants' racially segregated lives, I propose an analytical category which I name re-Apartheid existence to capture the racially segregated lives of African migrants in 'post'-Apartheid South Africa which mirror Apartheid's racist spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study conducted in rural Acornhoek, Mpumalanga, addresses the inadequate research and understanding surrounding the teaching of mathematics in the early grades, particularly in rural South African schools where indigenous languages like Xitsonga are used as the medium of instruction. This gap in research highlights the broader issue of the implications of language policy in South Africa for educational success, where the political nature of language use complicates effective teaching practices. The primary objective of this study is to contribute to the ongoing discourse on the role of home languages in mathematics teaching, specifically focusing on how the use of Xitsonga during lessons on patterns in early-grade classrooms limits the effectiveness of teachers’ instruction on the concepts. The theoretical grounding of this research is rooted in the understanding that language is not merely a tool for communication but is intricately linked to identity and learning. Within an interpretive paradigm, the data collection process for this qualitative study involved three main components: unstructured non-participatory classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and video-stimulated recall interviews. In this paper, we focus solely on the data from classroom observations to illustrate the dynamics of using the Xitsonga language to teach patterns in rural Foundation Phase classrooms. The sample consisted of 33 teachers from three different school sites in Acornhoek. The findings reveal the complexities involved in using Xitsonga to teach mathematical concepts. Teachers faced challenges related to language proficiency, pedagogical strategies, and the integration of local cultural contexts into their teaching practices.

This paper investigates creative intersections of race and gender in South African multimedia spaces in the construction of the country’s historical narrative(s). Whose past is recorded and how is it preserved/represented in the national cultural archive? The article focuses on historical female figures forgotten, manipulated or marginalized in the official records, as a privileged site of South African female historical counter-narratives. This approach relies on recent studies that invite scholars to adopt “alternative methodologies that take seriously the realm of the speculative and the imaginative” (Soudien 2023: 83).

This study investigated the impact of social identities, such as race, gender, class, and ethnicity, on the educational experiences of teachers in three secondary schools close to Pretoria, South Africa (SA). A Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework was employed to examine the power dynamics and systemic inequalities that influence educational outcomes in a post-apartheid SA. The study's objectives were: finding out the impact of race and gender on the educational experiences of teachers; mapping out the effects of class on the educational experiences of teachers; and identifying factors that re/produce educational inequalities from intersecting social identities. The research utilised qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews, observations, and ethnographic observations from purposely selected information-rich teachers. The results reflect resource shortages, mismatch of language of instruction, policy producing unintended outcomes, culture and traditions perpetuating wrong perceptions, a lack of training of teachers; and support. This research proposes transformative approaches, such as developing inclusive curricula, culturally responsive teacher training programmes, and anti-inequality policies which align with the United Nation's vision for global educational reform. It contributes to creating a more inclusive educational landscape in the post-apartheid SA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since democratic change in 1994 South Africa's cities have experienced major physical and social changes. Johannesburg, South Africa's major city, has been at the leading edge of the changes occurring in the landscape of the country's cities and therefore has generated a substantial scholarly literature. Geographical writings are concentrated mainly on the inner-cities and townships. Less research has been pursued on South Africa's suburban spaces and particularly in what has been described as the 'in-between' middle-class suburban areas. The objective in this article is to investigate the dynamics of suburban transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. The case study is situated in the south of Johannesburg and centres on neighbourhood change in former 'white' designated suburbs. The study discloses resident motivations driving change, issues of socio-economic mobility, and the shifts occurring in the nature of residential property development in these spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the polysemy and ambivalence of "home" in Niq Mhlongo's Way Back Home, identifying "home" as a place of belonging and origin, as well as a repository of history. It begins by situating the novel in a post-apartheid context, identifying the allegorical potential of its main characters. The article primarily focusses on the material and spiritual journeys of Kimathi, the novel's protagonist, while also giving consideration to the journey of his victim, Senami (alias Lady Comrade Mkabayi). Informed by Homi Bhabha's conception of the unhomely, this article argues that the loss of home constitutes a trauma of displacement for Kimathi and considers whether his return home suggests the possibility of closure for both him and South Africa as a nation. Finally, it observes how Way Back Home invokes Njabulo Ndebele's assertion that South Africans are "yet to return home" to justice and the ideals of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the politics of mobility in post-1994 South Africa by paying attention to minibus taxis, which have received little consideration from literary scholars although they are ubiquitous in contemporary South African literature. Attending to the minibus taxis that pervade post-apartheid Black writing, I contend, sheds light onto the ongoing racialization of mobility in the country. Offering a socially situated reading of Thabo Jijana's Nobody's Business: A Taxi Owner, a Murder, and a Secret (2014), I show that the abysmal state of public transport in present-day South Africa is emblematic of larger realities of immobility which continue to structure the lives of most Black South Africans. Motivated by the death of his father, a taxi owner who was murdered at the job, Jijana's searing investigative memoir provides a powerful lens into the underbelly of the minibus taxi industry and the violence that drives it. As it reveals the precarity that continues to characterize not just public transport, but every-day life for the Black majority, Nobody's Business suggests that the politics of mobility in post-apartheid South Africa cannot be understood outside the racism and anti-Blackness that define the democratic dispensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the apartheid era, when the National Party (NP) was in government, development-driven and economic growth initiatives were a distinctive feature in South Africa. Laws and policies drawn and implemented by the apartheid regime favoured the minority white population over most blacks. After the transition period from 1990 to 1994, significant strides were made to transform South Africa's political leadership and governance structures in all aspects of government, and local government became an essential doctrine of development from this period. Post-1994, after the first-ever democratic elections in South Africa and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela (the late) as the first-ever black South African President, developmental local government became an imperative doctrine for the African National Congress Government (ANC). This was also documented in the South African Constitution (1996) as a stepping-stone for economic growth through numerous legislations and policies. However, over the last few years, local government has been confronted with numerous challenges, notwithstanding some of the achievements that have been made. Growing corruption, inequality, nepotism, cadre deployment, and maladministration have presented a daunting task for local government in South Africa's 30 years of democracy. This article aimed to delve into the successes and challenges of local government since 1994, considering the transformation made in South Africa over the last three decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue addresses the complexities of mathematics teaching and learning in post-apartheid South Africa by exploring themes such as pedagogical reasoning, decoloniality, rural education challenges, and teacher preparation. It contributes to the ongoing dialogue on mathematics education's role in social transformation, enhancing the body of knowledge and deepening practitioners' understanding of its impact.

This paper examines the conflicts arising from the coexistence of traditional leadership and democratic local governance in Dukuduku, KwaZulu-Natal, a region marked by overlapping authority and contested land claims. Despite constitutional recognition, traditional leadership in post-apartheid South Africa remains ambiguously defined, leading to clashes with democratically elected structures over roles, responsibilities, and territory. This study uses a qualitative methodology to analyse archival materials, media sources, and meeting records and conducts semi-structured interviews with 25 stakeholders, including traditional leaders, senior citizens, and subsistence farmers. The findings reveal that introducing a local government system under the Amakhosi jurisdiction precipitates confrontations, particularly where duties intersect. In Dukuduku--proclaimed a state forest--the recognition of traditional authority creates disputes over land ownership and governance, complicating the administration of land and impacting service delivery. The analysis suggests that the institutional "invention" and subsequent "recognition" of traditional leadership in areas like Dukuduku not only challenge the perceptions of state land but also exacerbate power struggles, thereby affecting local development and governance. The study contributes to understanding the dynamic interplay between traditional and democratic governance systems in rural South Africa. It highlights the implications for policy and local administration in managing such dual governance structures effectively. This study explains how hard it is to combine traditional structures with a modern democratic framework. It also gives us a better understanding of what this means for rural governance and land management in changing societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the end of apartheid regime in 1994, it became clear to the government that a new constitution was urgently needed in order to redistribute and restitute land. After two years of intense deliberations and consultations, a new constitution was finally adopted in 1996. The new constitution clearly spelt out the fundamental principles of land reform policy. As a result, threelegged land reform strategy was adopted. These are (i) land tenure; (ii) land restitution; and (iii) land redistribution. However, existing scholarship has shown that these land reform programmes have not really addressed the social injustices of the past. Although there has been interesting scholarship on land question in post-apartheid South Africa, most of the previous studies focus on 'economic compensation' rather than 'social justice'. In attempt to fill this gap in scholarship, this paper examines land question within the theoretical prism of social justice theory. The paper analyses the concept of social justice; then, proceeded to the discussions, applications and critiques of Kurt Lewin's three-model of social change, John Rawls' theory of social justice and Nancy Frazer's model of parity of participation to land question in post-apartheid South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While scholars have long taken Afropolitanism to task for its classism, its racial politics have largely been praised. Pushing against this (un)critical consensus, this article offers the first sustained analysis of the racial politics informing Achille Mbembe's theory of Afropolitanism alongside Zukiswa Wanner's novel London, Cape Town, Joburg (2014). Making visible how institutional racism continues to define the post-apartheid present, it shows that both authors differentially single out race for scrutiny and collude in mystifying white dominance in South Africa. Just as Mbembe's works on Afropolitanism are preoccupied with race but obfuscate racism, Wanner's novel uses racialized drama as an important plot device yet stigmatizes the denunciation of white supremacy, while sharply critiquing homophobia, sexism, and xenophobia. In invoking race as central while relieving white people of responsibility for the racist status quo, these works display paradoxes that reveal an investment in silencing racism, paradoxes which this article lays bare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-Apartheid South Africa shifted to a culture of consumption, originating with a transition to a neoliberal society [Sana, V. (2022). Bits of bytes and bites of bits: Instagram and the gendered performance of food production in the South African Indian community. Agenda, 36(1), 100–108), alongside access to a globalized world. During apartheid, consumption was strictly regulated, and racialized. This culture of consumption has been prevalent since the mid-1990s. As apartheid regulations lifted, the freedom of movement, choice and the ability to consume unreservedly, opened possibilities previously unimagined for much of the population. Consumption in South Africa is largely characterized by the unique contextual and symbolic processes that inform it. Consumption practices have impacted performances of identity and anxieties of belonging in turn [Sana, V. (2022). Bits of bytes and bites of bits: Instagram and the gendered performance of food production in the South African Indian community. Agenda, 36(1), 100–108]. This paper examines the visual representations of consumption practices on Instagram. Using critical consumption studies, an analysis of various Instagram influencers' consumption uncovers how South Africans affirm their place in the neoliberal global stage through acts of consumption. The article considers the consumption of products as a product itself to be consumed, and how this links to debates around conspicuous consumption in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the end of apartheid regime in 1994, it became clear to the government that a new constitution was urgently needed in order to redistribute and restitute land. After two years of intense deliberations and consultations, a new constitution was finally adopted in 1996. The new constitution clearly spelt out the fundamental principles of land reform policy. As a result, three-legged land reform strategy was adopted. These are (i) land tenure; (ii) land restitution; and (iii) land redistribution. However, existing scholarship has shown that these land reform programmes have not really addressed the social injustices of the past. Although there has been interesting scholarship on land question in post-apartheid South Africa, most of the previous studies focus on ‘economic compensation’ rather than ‘social justice’. In attempt to fill this gap in scholarship, this paper examines land question within the theoretical prism of social justice theory. The paper analyses the concept of social justice; then, proceeded to the discussions, applications and critiques of Kurt Lewin’s three-model of social change, John Rawls’ theory of social justice and Nancy Frazer’s model of parity of participation to land question in post-apartheid South Africa.

This article endeavours to offer an anti-imperial interpretation of the micro-narrative of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1–10, portraying it as a model for justice and reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa. This analysis stems from the perceived shortcomings of the outcomes of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) efforts in nation-building, particularly in the realm of socio-economic justice, which remained unaddressed. The article proposes that an examination of the Greek verbs δίδωμι and άπoδίδωμι in Luke 19:8 within the broader context of the third Gospel – taking into account linguistic, structural and thematic considerations – reveals their inherent futuristic quality. This quality allows for their repetitive usage or usage with a future-oriented intent, seamlessly integrating them into the narrative and supporting an interpretation that depicts Zacchaeus as a repentant sinner committed to reforming his ways. Zacchaeus’s repentant stance, particularly in relation to economic justice, is seen as an essential model for addressing justice for victims of colonialism and apartheid and fostering reconciliation between black people and white people in South Africa. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The anti-imperial method of reading makes it possible to foreground the imperial narrative and social world(s) of the Bible, analysing the theological critique of the values, structures, institutions and systems of these world(s) by New Testament writers, and applying the same critique to the political and socio-economic structures of colonialism, apartheid, and post-colonial South Africa today. Accordingly, this research intersects with imperial, colonial and post-colonial theories in the disciplines of sociology, history and political science.

Ubuntu has been defined as a moral quality of human beings, as a philosophy or an ethic, as African humanism, and as a worldview. This paper explores these definitions as conceptual tools for understanding the cultural, educational, and philosophical landscape of post-apartheid South Africa. Key to this understanding is the Althusserian concept of state apparatus. Louis Althusser divides the state apparatus into two forces: the repressive state apparatus (RSA); and the ideological state apparatus (ISA). RSAs curtail the working classes, predominately through direct violence or the threat of violence, whereas ISAs function primarily by ideology, including forms of organised religion, the education system, family units, legal systems, trade unions, political parties, and media. This paper discusses the link between increasing inequality in post-apartheid South Africa and education, with specific reference to Althusser's ISAs and the abuse of Ubuntu as a subterfuge for socio-economic inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African identity has been shaped by nation-building discourse; it remains a point of ongoing political discussion well into South Africa’s democratisation. Literature suggests that ‘South Africans’ only exist through their creation by nationalist rhetoric; therefore, growing political discontent is reflected in a disentanglement from the ‘South African’ identity. This article, using photovoice, explores Black university students’ constructions of their identity in contemporary South Africa. The participants viewed the South African society as a divided one. Although they described the impact of nation-building discourse as having existed in the past, they spoke of it as a disingenuous sentiment that has faded with the passing of former President Nelson Mandela. Instead, the participants turn to their ethnic groups to establish a fluid cultural identity. The ‘bornfree’ generation is in a state of ‘in-between’: born after the official end of apartheid, they are thought of as having access to opportunities unavailable to previous generations. However, they continue to grapple with the challenges and unresolved legacies of the past. This project’s significant contribution lies in its emphasis on the perspectives and experiences of the ‘born-frees’ themselves. Existing literature shows that politicians and academics usually control discussions related to nation-building and transformation. Yet, the voices of the ‘born-frees’ are frequently side-lined, as they are perceived to lack firsthand experience of apartheid’s challenges. This study demonstrates that, even with democratic change, there are numerous aspects of ‘born-free’ lives that have remained untransformed.

American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois introduces the phrase double consciousness in his work. According to Du Bois, this phrase describes a dilemma of two consciousnesses that Black Americans face due to what he calls ‘the veil of racism’. While the consciousness that Du Bois speaks of is in the context of Black Americans, this work attempts to answer whether colonisation and racism in South Africa did not also lead to a form of double consciousness to those who experienced it. This work does this by firstly exploring the institutionalised form of colonisation in South Africa known as apartheid. It shows how this system characterised and made Black people seem as though they were lazy, stupid, and inferior, which in turn led to the second consciousness. This work further shows the experience of double consciousness by Black South Africans through hair and beauty politics. It shows that Black South Africans retaliate and assert their blackness through protest despite the double consciousness. Furthermore, this work uses South African literature to demonstrate how Black people in South Africa are knowledgeable of the consciousness, its effects, and how it operates.

Leila Hall, Assistant Editor of The Thinker, in conversation with Prof. Helene Strauss about her recent book, Wayward Feeling: Audio-Visual Culture and Aesthetic Activism in Post-Rainbow South Africa (2022; University of Toronto Press).

This paper intends to determine the contestation between the quality and quantity of service delivery in comparison between pre-apartheid and post-democratic South Africa. There are relative arguments that persist that quality and better service was provided in South Africa during the apartheid government era as compared to the current democratic system era. Contrary to these arguments, post-apartheid South African politicians boast about the service they are providing at the best quality and having closed the segregated service delivery system that was provided and practiced by the apartheid regime. This paper is conceptual, and it uses a desktop methodology to argue and compare the two perspectives in an attempt to find a truthful answer to it. This paper concludes that within the midst of the contestation of such arguments, the current beneficiaries perpetuating such scale of comparison are ignorant of the different contexts of eras of development and challenges and opportunities within which the two regimes operate.

This article discusses constitutional, legislative and policy frameworks strategically introduced post-apartheid era to foster land expropriation reforms that would restore dignity, equity, equality and justice to the forcefully dispossessed Black South Africans from their land during the pre-colonial and apartheid regimes. More importantly, even though the colonial and apartheid settlers metamorphosised into rulers expropriated land without compensation, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 has brough about various interventions that seek to ensure that the land that was forcefully taken should be returned to the right owners. This proposition has continued to generate fierce debates in the country. While some pundits have asserted that the Black majority now in charge of governance, should use postapartheid laws to expropriate land without compensation, there have been stiff resistant from the white minority who are both the owners of vast land and at the same time exercising right of possession and occupation respectively. It is against these competing interests that this paper postulates that in order to restore the dignity of the dispossessed and forcefully removed Black South Africans from their rightful land, there is need to look at the constitutional imperatives as well as equity and justice based on the post-apartheid frameworks that are available to ensure that the past apartheid land dispossession and injustices are redressed, and the wrongs committed are remedied.

The nature of the unfolding social cohesion in previously racially segregated residential spaces has attracted attention since the collapse of apartheid in South Africa and the subsequent transition to democracy in 1994. This paper uses sense of neighbourhood to investigate the emerging social interactions in Cambridge, a former whites-only residential suburb in East London, South Africa. Fitting a binary logistic regression on survey data from a sample of residents of Cambridge, the paper tests the likelihood of race and gender influencing three indicators of the sense of neighbourhood: the sense of safety, trust and norms of reciprocity. The results show that relational dimensions of the sense of neighbourhood differed along racial lines, with low levels of interracial trust mirroring studies elsewhere in the country, and the national-level South African Reconciliation Barometer survey reports. Due to the voluntaristic nature of relational ties, social integration will remain elusive, and regardless of the extent of racial changes, variations in the sense of neighbourhood will characterise the urban residential spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I foreground the view that, as human agents initiating and participating in developmental projects that are both economically and educationally oriented, the possession of social consciousness of what development in society in the twenty-first century fully entails is an indispensable attribute. This paper, therefore, interrogates the narrower views of development, which tend to focus on identifying development with the growth of a gross national product with the rise in personal incomes, with industrialisation, or with technological advance (Sen, 1999:3). Thus, I argue that social consciousness on the part of human subjects, who are in turn agents of social developmental change, is critical since development ...requires partnerships within a framework of common values and goals (Badat, 2009:11). It is against this backdrop, therefore, that Coppedge’s (1999:465) averment to the effect that “development is more than just average wealth”. Arguably, it is rendered intelligible since “development is a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy”, which ‘contrasts with the narrower views of development’ (Sen, 1999:3). Thus, societies that are bedevilled by social illsresulting from a lack of development must continue to ‘search for human agency and for the means through which inequality can be undone (Hammami, 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sheds light on two extremely important processes of the rise of Christian Nationalism and Christian New Right ideology that are currently underway in post-apartheid South Africa and situates these processes in relation to other regions of the world. In particular, the article calls attention to a creeping religious orientation in post-apartheid South Africa towards Christian Nationalism by insisting on the ideological centrality of Christianity and argues that to fully understand how Christian Nationalism is taking root in South Africa, we have to frame it through the language of the New Religious Right, and specifically its instantiation in Neo/Pentecostalism. In making its argument, the article first makes the definitional link between Christian Nationalism and the New Religious Right and; second, clarifies the explicit ways to interpret electoral and civil liberties spaces as exemplifying the conservative encroachment of democratic South Africa by a specifically transracial form of Neo/Pentecostalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses constitutional, legislative and policy frameworks strategically introduced post-apartheid era to foster land expropriation reforms that would restore dignity, equity, equality and justice to the forcefully dispossessed Black South Africans from their land during the pre-colonial and apartheid regimes. More importantly, even though the colonial and apartheid settlers metamorphosised into rulers expropriated land without compensation, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 has brough about various interventions that seek to ensure that the land that was forcefully taken should be returned to the right owners. This proposition has continued to generate fierce debates in the country. While some pundits have asserted that the Black majority now in charge of governance, should use postapartheid laws to expropriate land without compensation, there have been stiff resistant from the white minority who are both the owners of vast land and at the same time exercising right of possession and occupation respectively. It is against these competing interests that this paper postulates that in order to restore the dignity of the dispossessed and forcefully removed Black South Africans from their rightful land, there is need to look at the constitutional imperatives as well as equity and justice based on the post-apartheid frameworks that are available to ensure that the past apartheid land dispossession and injustices are redressed, and the wrongs committed are remedied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa’s education system faces ongoing challenges in the post-apartheid era. Despite significant government investment, higher education continues to be characterised by inefficiency and inequality. This article is based on a systematic qualitative investigation and literature review. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 15 purposively sampled participants and key informants. The article uncovers the enduring legacy of the Verwoerdian education system characterised by racial and class disparities. It also sheds light on the consequences of dwindling state support, the fervour of the “fees must fall” movement, and the resilience of outdated educational structures. The article calls for greater state engagement in order to democratise access to quality education through equitable funding models and proactive reforms that would revitalise higher education in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how Milla, the Afrikaner protagonist of Marlene van Niekerk's post-apartheid novel Agaat , engages with others' empathy toward herself. Theorizing empathy as a multivalent engagement with others' experiences, I argue that Milla attempts to variously invite, avoid, and manipulate others' empathy as she negotiates the anxiety of being misunderstood, the sense of vulnerability in being understood, and the dependence of her self-image on others' opinions. Illustrating the fraught experience of encountering empathy toward oneself—a neglected topic in studies of empathy—the novel shows that empathy is neither always welcomed nor received passively by potential empathizees. Further, I suggest, the contrast between Milla's approaches to empathy as empathizer and empathizee ironizes her struggles by indicating her proclivity for controlling empathic interactions. Demonstrating how power relations inform empathy, Agaat complicates the popular notion of empathy as a straightforward gateway to reconciliation by highlighting its characters' ambivalences about receiving empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A colonial legacy, the nature of which subliminally instils ingrained reproductions of racial inferiority and superiority, makes it necessary to highlight the need to focus in more depth on the race and racism discourse of social work academics. As social work educators within the current South African higher education, the importance of social justice cannot be overemphasised. Considering the colonial undertones of South African social work education and the multicultural nature of South African society, in this article, I focus on the ethical implications of a colonial legacy and lingering race and racism issues for social work education. The article is derived from part of a qualitative study on discourses about race and racism with 16 academics within the higher education arena. In the article, I employed a non-probability sampling method, face-to-face interviews and a discursive data analysis approach. An excerpt of the interview with one academic Claire (white) is analysed by the researcher (black) with specific focus on Claire's race and racism discourse. The focus is on critically and reflexively engaging with the ethical implications this has for social work education in the current era. It also contains my reflections as a social work academic navigating issues of race and racism. The findings evidenced seeming obliviousness to coloniality for Claire, which I inadvertently channel. This reflects the challenges of the South African commitment to moving beyond colonialism and the challenge this poses for social work values and ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-apartheid South Africa's liberation historiography has been constructed and curated in a manner that influences public and collective memory to assume that only one specific liberation movement (the African National Congress) was involved in the South African liberation struggle. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and its military wing, the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), have largely been given perfunctory attention or ignored because of bias and the selective politics of memory. In instances where the history of PAC or APLA is given some attention pre and post-apartheid, the focus has been mainly on uPoqo as the paramilitary wing of the PAC, or on the leadership conflicts within it, at the expense of interrogating other important aspects within the movement. This article explores the development of the term Poqo, mapping its roots from the shorthand for "Umbutho wama-Afrika Poqo." It then shows that the prohibition of the PAC in 1960 after the Sharpeville massacre led the movement to operate under the auspices of Poqo, an underground name. Furthermore, this article demonstrates that Poqo was not a paramilitary wing of the PAC but is/was the PAC itself in another form. Ultimately, this historical and historiographical contribution seeks to achieve a re-alignment of Poqo in South Africa's post-apartheid history writing and public memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerted efforts have been geared towards development in the South African Post-apartheid era at local level. Studies have shown that local governments have recognized local economic development as a crucial tool for addressing development-related challenges. The extent to which the municipalities have ingrained the local economic development goal, however, has received little to no attention. Hence, this paper intends to fill the missing gap and answers the following questions: what are the key components of economic development at the local level in the post-apartheid era? To what extent has the local economic development stimulated growth and development with particular reference to small and medium scale enterprise? What are the donors’ approaches to local development and their critical challenges? Using the secondary sources of data collection, this paper reviews current level of economic development at local municipalities in South Africa. Thereafter, it examines the impact of the municipal government strategies designed to stimulate political and socio-economic development agenda at the local level in South Africa. This paper identifies strategic planning and local resources needed to address the local economic development in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I have a beautiful painting of Oliver Tambo and Olof Palme in my office. Every day, I look into the eyes of these humanitarian role models. I see a pair of committed leaders sharing hopes, commitments, and respect for one another and other human beings. I see their eyes telling me the story of a unique relationship between South Africa and Sweden, one of trust and shared common values. How did two nations, separated by more than just geography, build such a strong bond in the beginning of the 1960s? Sweden was at that stage an industrialised, prosperous, and stable country with many years of economic growth and progress, while South Africa was a repressive apartheid state where the people suffered. A unique aspect of the relationship was that it was driven by the unique people of each of these nations, with a realisation that their common goals could not be reached in isolation but through an interconnectedness that moved mountains and split oceans apart, joining our two nations for endless opportunities, for years to come.

This article examines the legacy of the Swedish antiapartheid movement on their post-apartheid bilateral economic relationship with South Africa. Focusing on developments within the South African economy from a Swedish perspective, the article studies Sweden’s ambitions and efforts to develop their economic cooperation. The study is built on mixed methods where the main bulk of data is collected through semistructured interviews with Swedish experts on the bilateral relationship. Through an analytical framework built on embeddedness theory and soft power, the article examines the impact of the trust and influence that stems from Sweden’s support of the South African liberation movement.

In 2014, Sweden became the first country to adopt a feminist foreign policy. Although a new Swedish government abandoned the country’s feminist foreign policy in October 2022, Sweden has inspired many other states to adopt such a foreign policy to advance the status of women and girls. These developments have not gone unnoticed in South Africa, where historical relations between Sweden and the country’s liberation movements endure in post-apartheid South Africa. Unlike Sweden, South Africa never adopted or declared a feminist foreign policy due to historical and cultural reasons, and different conceptualisations of women, gender, and feminism. Instead, under the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) since 1994, South Africa has diplomatically capitalised on its liberation struggle and human rights credentials; the latter which, to some extent, have for some time superseded a more focused emphasis on women’s rights. A more nuanced foreign policy focus on improving the status of women and gender equality emerged partly due to international developments regarding women, peace, and security. Hence, the contribution explores feminist and/or gendered aspects of South Africa’s foreign policy of ubuntu (human-ness and humanity) and diplomatic practice, and the implications thereof. It has shown that South Africa’s growing embrace of elements associated with a feminist foreign policy includes memorialisation and symbolism (i.e. linking the liberation struggle and female stalwarts to foreign policy), positioning women in progressive internationalism, and integrating women in the definition of South Africa’s national interests.

Despite the human rights principles established in South Africa’s Constitution, there have been recurrent waves of xenophobia throughout the country’s history. Foreigners who live in South Africa have been perceived as the victims of xenophobia and South Africans as the perpetrators. This paper aims to problematise the usage of the ‘ubuntu’ ideology as a utopian African ethic to promote ‘universal’ African humanism. It seems that apartheid’s heritage, which produced the present-day South Africa in which these xenophobic events occur, is often overlooked when South Africans are characterised as xenophobic and in need of ubuntu salvation. The study makes the case that colonial and political issues, which continue to have an impact on high levels of poverty and unemployment, should be considered as ongoing contributors to xenophobia. Several anti-immigration organisations have emerged as discussion points in the country. This study will only concentrate on one of these: Operation Dudula. This paper critically examines the reasons why Operation Dudula is continuing to expand despite protests from civil society organisations. This paper demonstrates, via media stories, how the media primarily portrays the organisation as vigilante that vex ubuntu and African unification. The paper makes the claim that marginalised South Africans are ‘Native Foreigners’, as opposed to simply perpetrators, drawing on Neocosmos’ idea of native foreigners. Instead of being considered as a problem that needs ubuntu’s salvation, the paper argues that anti-immigrant organisations should be understood as a sign of unsolved colonial and political problems that need to be addressed.

This introduction to the special issue on Feminist Strike takes up the question of what remains marginalized and overlooked within dominant discourses on contemporary feminist protests. Drawing on experiences of and approaches to feminist refusal that involve questions of labour, we propose the ways in which conceptualizations of feminist strike can be employed as a lens to build a conversation between different practices, scales, and geographies, particularly across postcolonial and postsocialist contexts. Through a reading of Aliki Saragas's film Strike a Rock (2017) about the women living around the Marikana miners' settlement in the aftermath of a major strike and mas - sacre, we explore how notions of feminist strike can be expanded by situating Black women's struggles in South Africa within a long tradition of women's resistance and showing how political resistance is bound to questions of reproductive work. To understand the intersection of postsocialist, post-conflict, and (pre-)Europeanization transformations, we consider the case of a large-scale strike and public demonstrations against the bankruptcy of the Croatian shipyard Uljanik that took place in 2018 and 2019. Our perspectives on the Marikana and the Uljanik strikes show how women in both places practise a politics of refusal and resistance against ruination, violence, and defeat. In the last section, we summarize the contents of the articles that comprise the special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of South Africa and the Kingdom of Sweden are often said to share a special relationship. This relationship, as Anna-Mart van Wyk’s article in this special issue illustrates, is firmly rooted in Sweden’s support for the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Since then, both South Africa and Sweden, and indeed the world as a whole, have experienced significant political, economic, and social changes. The bilateral relationship between South Africa and Sweden has grown since the former’s transition to democracy on the 27th of April 1994. To this end, South Africa and Sweden enjoy a bi-national commission and a total of 22 bilateral agreements (DIRCO, 2022). In addition to these milestones, innovative initiatives have been established in areas of mutual concern. Chief examples in this regard include the South Africa-Sweden University Forum (SASUF) and the Cape Town-Stockholm Connect Initiative, which seek to stimulate collaboration in higher education and business and technology respectively. There have also been developments in our cultural exchanges in recent years. One such example was the facilitation of the Sweden-South Africa Live Connection: Digitally Yours Campaign (hereafter the Digitally Yours Campaign) which sought to keep both countries connected virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Digitally Yours Campaign ran from the 4th of April 2020 until the 2nd of May 2020 and hosted a number of virtual exchanges, whereby both Swedish and South African artists participated in roundtable discussions and cultural performances in the areas of fashion, poetry, and music (Embassy of Sweden in Pretoria, 2020).

Levenson's new book Delivery as Dispossession offers a careful reading of land occupations in Cape Town that takes us from landless communities in the city to courtrooms. His study focuses on two occupations in the Mitchell's Plain area with contrasting fates, which his empirically rich analysis explains in relation to the occupiers' strategies and self-representation to the state. It is an important political sociology that contributes to how we understand the post-apartheid state and contemporary Cape Town through the inadequacies of its public housing project. It also theoretically reframes understandings of the state-subject relations in a manner that demonstrates the importance of local political organisation and the refusal of the poor to be managed as populations without political voice, as objects merely of a planning apparatus. My review essay seeks to elaborate some of its key interventions, and to pose some questions of its framing of historical continuities and changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In democratic South Africa, many Black African women are still subjugated by being employed as domestic workers. Increasing evidence emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic revealing unmistakable signs of modern-day slavery among South African Black domestic workers. This paper proposes a clinical model which examines how gender, class, and race intersections affect the ways in which specifically identified change agents offer new, transforming interventions via clinical intervention. Adopting a clinical approach augments identification of a specific social problem from a scientifically systematic applied approach built on applied theory. We report on the conditions facing vulnerable Black African women using a bricolage research approach. The resulting model explicitly identifies systemic inequalities and indicates how to reduce exploitation and protect workers. The bricolage approach aided the secondary qualitative analysis of complex bonded-labour intersections. The problem of Black African women living as bonded domestic labour is augmented by the girl children's primary socialisation, Western patriarchal re-socialisation which sustains apartheid, and race, class, occupational, and gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen calls for a reorientation towards anticolonial perspectives and for further decolonization in many formerly colonized countries. Meanwhile, postcolonial studies have been criticized for being too western-oriented and too focused on diasporic subjects. This article addresses these critiques through an examination of anticolonial engagement in three South African memoirs: Reclaiming Home by Lesego Malepe, Memoirs of a Born Free by Malaika Wa Azania, and Born in Chains by Clinton Chauke. The texts exemplify an anticolonial approach in several contexts with regard to South Africa's apartheid past and the nation's still unequal present. The country has struggled to provide its citizens with educational and economic freedoms and equal prospects. Through their anticolonial positioning, the memoirs attest to the need for more nuanced views of the past and its effects in present-day South Africa. The rhetoric employed is eventually more geared towards contemporary challenges than struggles of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper operationalises the prefix trans in transformative constitutionalism to think expansively about post-apartheid freedoms. It uses the prefix to challenge limited conceptions of how freedom and transformation are read into the post-apartheid moment. In South Africa, often, debates about transformation are debates about race, and its linkages to class. This has created what looks like "first" and "secondary" struggles, with race being first and struggles like gender and gender equality regarded as secondary. This paper argues for a more complicated articulation of post-apartheid freedoms that does not neglect other forms of struggle like gender. Using trans - both as in transgender, the lived realities, and as in trans as metaphor - this paper challenges simplistic ways of reading freedom in post-apartheid South Africa. Furthermore, understanding the concept of the human has had a troubled history in that the foundations of the human have meant white, male and Western. Therefore, this paper uses the prefix trans to grapple with the meaning of the human in the human rights that are part of the South African Constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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