Anna Majavu

Anna Majavu

Anna Majavu is a writer concentrating on the rights of workers, oppressed people, the environment, anti-militarism and what makes a better world.

Helen Zille's Hopeless Handling of Cape Gang Violence

Picture: The Democratic Alliance/Flickr Anna Majavu - With the DA beginning their campaign to wrest control of another few provinces from the ANC in the 2014 elections, the impoverished residents of Cape Town’s Lavender Hill and Hanover Park have become the latest convenient political footballs. Like other so-called “Coloured” communities - Delft, Grassy Park, Ocean View and Bishop Lavis - Lavender Hill and Hanover Park remain derelict ghettoes, which appear to be stuck in a long forgotten era. A part-privatised leaky...

Penalizing Protest Action

Picture: Police attack protestors courtesy dblackadder/Flickr. Anna Majavu - Increased police brutality and the prospect of conservative politicians using public money to sue and bankrupt organizations they ideologically oppose - these are the likely outcomes of last week’s Constitutional Court judgment against protest organisers. In a judgment which upheld a repressive clause in the apartheid-era 1993 Regulation of Gatherings Act, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ruled that members of the public who suffer damages from protestors have the right to recoup their...

Growing Support for Israeli Apartheid Week in South Africa

Picture: writingrights.nu.org.za Anna Majavu - The first ever Palestinian-South African music collaboration between musicians and activists from both countries will be screened by video link between Gaza City and Soweto next Monday [12th March] as part of this week’s 8th international Israeli Apartheid Week. Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events (including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, film screenings and multimedia displays) held by ordinary people in well over 100 cities,...

Talking about Race Without Ending Racism

Picture: www.popularcritic.com Anna Majavu - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has been campaigning furiously for the past two months against the assertion that Cape Town is racist, after this was again thrust into the public spotlight at the beginning of the year by acclaimed singer Simphiwe Dana’s tweet that “no matter how famous/ rich you are, you’re still a 2nd class citizen if you’re Black in Cape Town”. After Dana asked DA leader Helen Zille for proof of the change she often trumpets, Zille responded,...

Time for South Africans to Take the BDS Campaign Seriously

Picture: Takver/Flickr Anna Majavu - The launch of a new handbook containing details of Israeli companies to be targeted as part of a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign has sent ripples of excitement through the global Palestine solidarity movement. “Targeting Israeli Apartheid”, published by Corporate Watch is a mammoth piece of research detailing most Israeli companies operating anywhere in the world, and how trade with those companies supports the state of Israel. The BDS movement became a...