Archbishop Desmond Tutu didn’t stop his fight for human rights once apartheid came to a formal end in 1994. He continued to speak critically against politicians who abused their power.
Klaaste was distressed by what was happening in black communities, where residents faced state terror and political violence. He sought to restore values such as self-help and neighbourly conduct.
Percy Qoboza, editor of The World, second from left, being arrested by apartheid police following the banning of the newspaper in 1977.
Arena Holdings Archives
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s political power stemmed from the visceral connection that she was able to make between the lives of the oppressed black people, and her own.
As South Africa marks Media Freedom Day, it’s clear that its battle isn’t over. Attacks on journalists continue –through physical intimidation and there’s also the threat of new laws.
Something really magical is happening at the intersection between jazz and hip-hop at the moment. Many of the artists involved will be playing at Africa’s foremost jazz festival.
University authorities in South Africa have agreed to most fees protesters’ demands. Yet, the protesters keep moving the goalposts. Do they want more than fees to fall?
Nelson Mandela, accompanied by his wife Winnie, walks out of the Victor Verster prison on February 11, 1990.
Ulli Michel/Reuters
The foundation founded by Nelson Mandela in 1999 has done a major revision - it has written off most of his reign as comprising “grand symbolic gestures”.
Author Christine Qunta says forgiveness trumps justice in South Africa.
Elelwani Netshifhire
Qunta advocates a reparations fund to accelerate corrective policies, that schools be freed from colonial indoctrination and that African culture should be mainstreamed, especially African languages.
Portrait of Miriam Tlali as part of Adrian Steirn’s 21 Icons South Africa project. Date: 15.10.2014.
Adrian Steirn/Courtesy of 21 Icons South Africa
Black Consciousness activist, Afrikaans poet and revered academic Adam Small has passed away. In his large volume of work he gave voice to the downtrodden – those marginalised by apartheid.
Soweto schoolchildren protest against Afrikaans in 1976.
Anti-Apartheid Movement Archive, Bodleian Library, Oxford UK
Forty years after the students uprisings of 1976, South Africa is again in the midst of a political movement led by students.They have changed the tenor and shape of political discussion around education.
Students want colonial symbols, such as this statue of Cecil John Rhodes, gone from their universities.
EPA/Nic Bothma
Calls for the decolonisation of countries, institutions, the mind and of knowledge are not new. In South Africa, these changes are crucial and long overdue. But they must be carefully thought through.