his week racist commentary by a white South African estate agent, Penny Sparrow, went viral. Within a few days, Sparrow – who referred to Durban’s black beach-goers as monkeys on Facebook – had been publicly shamed. To date, a charge of crimen injuria has been laid against her and a complaint about her statements lodged with the Human Rights Commission. …
In October, a scandal broke at one of South Africa’s most prestigious private boarding schools. A group of boys from Hilton College in the KwaZulu-Natal province — the white and black sons of South Africa’s elite — had taken a picture of themselves participating in a mock gang rape and it ended up on Instagram. Their “victim” …
Justice Malala’s book, We have now begun our descent: How to Stop South Africa losing its way, does a number of things well. It reclaims the space for a particular kind of conversation among successful but ordinary South Africans – those who are not radical or particularly steeped in the eloquent and sometimes exclusionary new language …
Just as mass protests were beginning at various campuses across South Africa, a fracas broke out among leading advocates at the country’s Bar. Leading human rights lawyer Richard Spoor was questioned about his decision to argue an important case on silicosis with an overwhelmingly white and male team. Spoor suggested he had little choice, arguing that “we only brief exceptional counsel,” including juniors …
In 2012, just before Fatou Bensouda began her tenure as the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, she addressed a large forum of African activists and academics in Cape Town. As she spoke to a room packed with highly educated skeptics — many of whom claimed that the I.C.C. appeared to have “an imperialist agenda” toward …