The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks after being released from prison for leading a boycott. Donald Uhrbrock/The Chronicle Collection via Getty Images On April 3, 1968, standing before a crowded church, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. painted his vision for justice. “I’ve seen the Promised Land,” he said. “I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” Twenty-two hours later, he was assassinated. King’s prophetic words express the virtue of hope amid hardship. He was not optimistic that he would reach the “Promised Land,” ye ..read more

Nearly three decades into democracy, land reform remains central to South Africa’s transformation policies and agricultural policy. We have over the years pointed out that the progress on land reform has been incorrectly reported. It’s been consistently understated. We have argued that, if the statistics are treated carefully, the progress has been much better than politicians and activists often claim. We were encouraged earlier this year when South African president Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged in his State of the Nation address that there had been better progress in land reform. The commonl ..read more

Eddie Webster (82), sociologist and emeritus professor at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, who died on 5 March 2024, lived a huge life, applying himself to many different arenas with great energy and insight. His achievements are quite extraordinary. He was an intellectual, a teacher, a leader, an activist for social change, a builder of institutions, a rugby player and jogger, a man of great energy and integrity, and the life and soul of any party. As an intellectual and activist he was always independent and critical, and alwa ..read more

Growing up in the 80s as a child with lots of siblings, I played in the street until dark or until we were called for dinner. We had an amazing community of neighbours. However, one elderly neighbour hated us. Every time the football went into her garden, she would confiscate it – and then pop the ball. When she collected over 20 deflated footballs, she would take them down to the police station and complain. To her, at least, free and active children were a pest and a disgrace. Our neighbour’s one-woman campaign didn’t deter us, though. Only one thing stopped us playing: the shattering of a w ..read more

Former Western Cape judge president John Mandlakayise Hlophe has become one of the first two members of South Africa’s judiciary to be impeached since the country became a constitutional democracy in 1994. A vote in parliament in late February 2024 stripped him of his title and barred him from accessing his retirement package. Judges can earn as much as R2 million (over US$100,000) a year in retirement. Narnia Bohler-Muller, a constitutional law expert, answers some questions about the impeachment. What were the high and low moments of his career? Hlophe was the first black judge appointed to ..read more

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has fundamentally changed the country’s marriage law, making it fairer to people who are married “out of community of property” when their marriages end. In these marriages, the estates of spouses are kept separate. They do not combine what they own into a joint estate. The change applies to people who got married after 1 November 1984 when their marriages end in divorce; or who got married before or after 1 November 1984 and whose marriages end in death. The apex court’s judgment of 10 October 2023, in the case of EB v ER, will benefit spouses, mainly wives ..read more

Sabina Andron In the early hours, poster installers head out with buckets of wheat paste and gig advertisements, refreshing the thousands of square metres of street poster sites in Melbourne. Graffiti writers and artists also take to the walls with their pieces. Municipal surface cleaners soon follow with chemicals and pressure washers. Our city buildings are covered with posters, signs, art and graffiti. Their creators’ tools are images: profitable, seductive, confronting, removed. Yet we rarely think about their collective role in articulating social values. While their creators’ values mig ..read more

Kairosing/Shutterstock Earlier this month, Woolworths announced it would no longer stock merchandise promoting Australia Day on January 26, a date surrounded by controversy. While observed as a national public holiday for more than 90 years, a 2021 ABC social survey found 55% of Australians supported changing the date. January 26 marks the beginning of the colonisation of Australia, bringing violence, theft and oppression to the First Nations peoples who had lived on the land for more than 50,000 years. It is also called Invasion Day, Survival Day or Day of Mourning. Many workplaces including ..read more

The speech President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered at the 112th birthday celebration of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), on 13 January can be seen as the party’s opening election gambit: a stadium packed to capacity, the display of a united leadership, and an invocation of three decades of success, delivered by a leader firmly in control of his party. The annual January 8 statement, unsurprisingly, was a 30 year self-assessment and is self-congratulatory. It was silent on the many failings under ANC rule: sluggish economic growth; crime and lack of security; fai ..read more

South African justice minister Ronald Lamola led a top legal team to argue the country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 11 January. South Africa argues that Israel’s indiscriminate retaliatory bombing and siege of Gaza contravenes the Genocide Convention. More than 23,000 Palestinians, including at least 10,000 children, have been killed. Narnia Bohler-Muller, an international law and human rights law expert, says the South African legal team argued soundly that Israel’s actions in Gaza are genocidal, and tells us who is who in the team. John Dugard ..read more