Mandla Charles and Mzwandile Mkwayi.
Let me say that again. Mandla Charles and Mzwandile Mkwayi. These men are heroes. These are names that should be recorded in our histories to attest to the sheer love and courage that humanity can display-in contrast to all the names of the fascists and patriarchal warmongers and dirty politicians that mainstream media spews in our faces 24/7.
Yet, average human beings with no status in society, in fact, volunteers out of the prison-rehabilitation system, chose to do and achieved what no other professional whose duty it is, dared to do. In our lead article, July Eccles reveals the gruesome narrative of the mine-rescue down shaft 11 in the Stilfontein mining tragedy, where the SA state, rescue services and SAPS let 87 people die a slow death while the country believed in 2012 that the killing of 36 miners was to be remembered as the biggest post-apartheid disaster.
The difference? The miners in Stilfontein were not South African. Remember Stilfontein is not becoming a national and international cry for solidarity as in South Africa, migrant lives mean next to nothing.
Similarly, while the South African state leads in the ICJ case against Apartheid Israel and send shiploads of coal to fuel their genocide and ecocide on Palestinian land, the country, is not standing still when the effects are clearly spiraling back home to raise taxes for the poor and where electricity and water is the average South African’s struggle. Roshan Dadoo tells of this contradiction on page 3.
In our gender section, (page 4) Lara Reddy writes about the complex Syrian landscape, an issue that has been playing out in the media since the fall of the Baathe regime last year. She writes from a feminist perspective, highlighting the work and demands of the Syrian Women’s Council and a message concerning the new interim constitution of Syria with a stark warning.
In our struggle section on page 5, Anastasya Eliseeva and Naomi Betana outlines the actions, campaigns, and organising that Witzenberg Justice Coalition led and then won against the Western Cape Education Department’s ridiculous and dangerous decision to cut school transport to the children of Vredederp. It is a win for WJC worth noting and their persistence in the struggle for working class upliftment is encouraging in very dark times.
This year began with the great loss of comrade Mark Thabo Weinberg, a familiar name in South Africa, a dedicated activist with a long tradition of left-wing activism. This, while we were still mourning the loss of dear comrade Prishani Naidoo last December. Dale McKinley, long-time friend and comrade celebrates her life and speaks to the contributions she made to our struggles on page 6. The Yetu Collective wrote an obituary to Mark and did justice to a life that certainly did justice to our working-class struggles. What
is usually our poetry page 8 is replaced with the obituary to Mark, whose life was a revolutionary poem born in thapartheid struggle, as was Prishani’s. Hamba Kahle comrades.
Finally, Toolshed X Camp created our pull-out poster, titled Khuma Shows Us the Way” that makes up page 2 and 7 to tell the story of the Stilfontein miners. While times may seem at its darkest, heroes do pop up to attest to the potential of humans long forgotten to love and care for each other with an unmatched courage. Hamba Kahle to the Stilfontein miners we lost and thank you to the community of Khuma that showed us the way.
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing.
About the dark times.”
― Bertolt Brecht
For comments to the Editor, letters, articles, or artwork,
contact Lara Reddy – .za
Workers World News Issue 130
