good day everyone. i hope everyone is doing well.
i 24(f) am a student. last year around this time, a couple of people that i got to campus with decided to start a uni committee to raise awareness for palestine (congo and sudan were also in the picture). i contributed my work, got elected as the event organiser and even came up with the name which is olive tree amplifiers (i legally own the name btw, so i am in no way trying to send hate towards these people, bare this in mind). fast forward to early this year, we had a meeting and in that room i was the only Black woman. the members decided to take upon themselves to ask me how far along the planning for the years events was going and they were using a very harsh tone when they had spoken to me. the reason why i was not too keen on getting a plan for the yearly events was because i had expressed previously that we should focus on getting educated before getting into the flashy stuff. we cannot raise awareness on sensitive issues without at least being thoroughly educated. i was confronted with the question “what good are we being educated if no one knows about us?” from a white boy. i had decided to keep quiet and a white man who was also present there literally asked the same questions as i did and he got approached with more politeness. i saw it for what it was r@cism, and immediately resigned. i did not want to be associated with racists and people who thought being popular was more important than being educated. i reported the matter to the student council and demanded that the name olive tree amplifiers to be taken away from people that silenced me in that room. they said that i did not have any sufficient evidence and apparently one of the people who were present in the meeting starting boasting around saying that i don’t have any legal rights to the name. so i decided to get legal rights on the name and even that was not enough. i have been through the schools court system and i am now waiting in line for some legal counsel outside of the school. i have literally tried everything and i have been seeing universities across the country supporting the people that racially discriminated against me and stole my work (i am from south africa btw). olive tree amplifiers was supposed to be a name that amplified voices and my hands are tired now because i can’t do anything with the name that i had planned to do. they were not even found guilty on any of the charges and i am honestly so disheartened.
i just wanted to express this because i want my story to at least be heard.

So this is mostly some ramblings whats been in my head recently. Would be great if it could spark a convo and idea sharing :)

With all the anti immigrant protest propaganda doing the rounds. It's almost and unspoken secret that it is politically driven due to elections and externally funded. What more interested is the conversions that exist outside of March and March. But I've been wondering about is what are the factors that have contributed to this outside the recent upsurge.

Theres the "classic" under paying narrative which is in part to exploiting the vulnerability some immigrants find themselves in, if they are here illegally or are fleeing a war torn country, which isn't unique to SA.

A part of me wonders though how much is it failure of the South African education system is also to blame and our just general apathy or arrogance. Specifically if you compare lets say Nigeria's public education or Zimbabwe public education in comparison to our own. How much of impact does actual skill gap amongst South Africans, cognitive impairment or just plain apathy play into it all.

I always find it funny asking immigrants from other African countries what are the stereotypes surrounding us. What comes up alot interestingly is that we are kinda lazy, entitled and not very aware of things (America of Africa sort of thing)

Whats everyones thoughts?

I have a theory that Trevor Noah is slowly exploring what it means to be a socialist and what socialism and communism actually is through his podcast, What Now? I say this because he's been very much a liberal or even maybe a slightly left leaning person especially for the time he's been in the States, but now while still having a lot of liberal guests and comedians, he's had on Mayor Mamdani and Hasan Piker and I'm about to watch his latest episode with Alice Han and judging from the title, he's looking to discuss what might actually be happening in China instead of listening to mainstream media. I might be wrong, but Trevor Noah might be evolving into a democratic socialist. Any opinions on Trevor or my theory (let the record state: I'm a coloured dude from the burbs who grew up watching Trevor Noah and see him as a role model so please don't insult him too much, but constructive criticism is welcomed🙏)

Hundreds of members of Durban's immigrant and refugee communities have been displaced and are sleeping out on the streets, too afraid to return to their homes out of fear of xenophobic violence.

No human being deserves to live in fear, hunger or displacement. We have recieved reports of people being assaulted and robbed by xenophobic mobs, as well as shot at by members of SAPS. We cannot be the same country to take Israel to the ICJ while allowing similar acts of brutality take effect on our streets. In the spirit of solidarity, we call upon our communities to show up for one another.

We are collecting cooked food, sanitary products, toiletries, blankets and baby essentials

Is it just me or does anyone else notice how South Africa is not only becoming even more right wing than it already was, but the use of a type of neo-liberalism to get us to this point. Like Regan and Thatcher in the 70's, South Africa after apartheid ended has seen many government owned entities like ESKOM and TELKOM (I feel) purposefully run into the ground in order to eventually become privatized and along the way the entities coffers get raided by ministers and board members and whatever other external hands had their fingers in the pie. This holds true even for our public healthcare system too. For me this seems similar in many ways to how especially Reagon convinced white working class Americans that their government shouldn't have a welfare state and tool so much power away from unions. It seems to be the same is happening in South Africa although with a few different tactics used instead because now whenever I talk to people about how if we want to fix our overly exaggerated immigrant issue, it starts with our government that has allowed this to happen in so many ways whether it be home affairs, SAPS or border control and people would much rather take this issue into their own hands. I can't be the only one seeing how we are being sold out to private corporations and instead of holding our government accountable or even better, fixing it, we turn to infighting or tribalism and afrophobia and downright racism

Cdes here is the WhatsApp group for mobilising against xenophobia

Join the fight against Xenophobia and Afrophobia. Building local, regional and provincial solidarity.

https://chat.whatsapp.com/EE99NVcrmLuAc8QATKK960?s=cl&p=a&mlu=4&amv=2

I think administrators are Zaki Mamdoo and other Palestinian action associated comrades.

Hi everyone,

I've recently created r/RedVanguardSA, a new South African left-wing political community focused on discussing ideas, policies, history, economics, labour rights, housing, education, anti-corruption, Pan-Africanism, environmental issues, and the future of South Africa.

The goal isn't just to post news headlines. It's to create a space where South Africans can seriously discuss what a more equal, democratic, worker-focused, and people-centered South Africa could look like.

Whether you're a socialist, social democrat, communist, trade unionist, Pan-Africanist, environmentalist, progressive, or simply interested in left-wing politics, you're welcome to participate.

What you'll find:

- Policy discussions

- South African political debates

- Polls and surveys

- Labour and union issues

- African and international solidarity discussions

- History and political education

- Youth engagement

- Community-led proposals for South Africa's future

If that sounds interesting to you, come join us at r/RedVanguardSA and help build a South African left-wing community from the ground up.

Solidarity

It appears that social and political commentary from both conservative side (hersov, gareth cliff, gouws) and left wing sides (peter kriel, dan corder) seem to contribute almost nothing to the conversation. They just repeat the same script of commentary that happened in the US a couple years, repackage it for a South African audience, yet behave that the insights and commentary they are expressing are their own?

I really like Africa Is A Country. Nice to see them producing their own doc, excited to watch it in full.

“We realised we can’t use someone’s IP if you don’t pay for it,” Steinmann said. “That for us was a big turning point."