South Africa - Page 12

Boycott Israel Activists Participated in UN Mideast Seminar

The United Nations Department of Public Information held a media seminar in Pretoria, South Africa earlier this month on peace in the Middle East. The stated goal of the three-day seminar was to bring together “politicians, academics and other experts exploring new ways to narrate the complex and evolving story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP/Getty Images

Culture War Brews Over South African Golden Rhino Figurine

For years, South Africa’s apartheid government ignored the significance of a “golden rhino” figurine that provides undeniable proof of a sophisticated society existing before white men arrived. But since the end of racist rule in 1994, the stunning object —

golden rhino

The Republican Party and the South African Opposition

In the midst of tweeting commentary (and complaints) about President Barack Obama’s press conference on Wednesday, I received an unexpected reply from Helen Zille, one of the foremost opposition leaders in my native South Africa, and a family friend.

Helen Zille (Rodger Bosch / AFP / Getty)

Obama Politicizes Charleston Shooting: Calls for Gun Control, Slams America

President Barack Obama reacted to Wednesday’s horrific massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina by calling for gun control and criticizing the United States for the frequency of mass shooting events. “We don’t have all the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun,” Obama said, adding: “At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.”

Formal Investiture Ceremony Held For Attorney General Loretta Lynch

De Klerk: Apartheid Was Not a ‘Crime Against Humanity’

Former South African President F. W. de Klerk, who shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for his role in steering South Africa from apartheid to democracy, has protested the way the current South African government is treating minority Afrikaners. In a speech at the Voortrekker Monument–an important Afrikaner symbol–De Klerk said that Afrikaners had been made to feel overly guilty for the past, and argued that apartheid had not been a “crime against humanity.”

Mandela and De Klerk (Associated Press)

South Africa Arrests 200 Immigrants in Raid Following Xenophobic Attacks

South African law enforcement has arrested 198 illegal immigrants in a raid in Johannesburg, following weeks of violent attacks on known foreigners and foreigner-owned small businesses by South African natives for unspecified “criminal activity.” The number of those arrested in one night is about 100 less than the total of those arrested for participating in riots and attacks that have taken the lives of seven and caused an international firestorm against the South African government.

South-African-Xenophobic-Violence-ap