The th!nc Foundation

South Africa has been experiencing a series of tensions that may be eating on its social fabric. This is due to the continued use of demeaning vocabulary aimed at a section of its people that were called ‘kaffirs’. Whilst the use of ‘kaffir’ is an abhorrence to humanity, it would seem its use has now assumed a particular role. It is also noteworthy to observe how emotionally charged   the response of society, and policy makers in particular, has been to this phenomenon and/or practice. But emotional policy response alone has not been enough, a social justice anchored response to the real and underlying issues is necessary. This article will argue that, the use of the 'kaffir' word is in fact a form of power display on the human civilization theatre designed to sustain a continuum of subjugation. The disintegration of formal, legal and economic apartheid since 1994 has still not dealt with racism as a manifestation of apartheid power over its primar...

A BEQUEATHED FREEDOM CHARTER AS THE SOUL OF THE NATION   The cohesion of a nation is always found in what is defined as its soul. Successful nations and democracies were and still are able to weather most storms as a result of their reliance on what defines them, rather than what they materially possess. It is in the definition of a nation’s soul that it can derive its norms and values. The norms and values that are detached from a nation’s soul have a tendency to reduce nations to demagogue worshippers thus breeding dictatorships of various kinds. A soul of a nation is a natural departure point to lay a basis for that nation’s definition. A national soul can be defined as self-awareness, or consciousness, unique to a particular society and is construed as being distinct from its inhabitants and can survive the death of generations and propel the birth of new ones . A national soul should therefore be a true basis for its consciousness and should be immortal in all conceivabl...

THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS AND NATION BUILDING The African National Congress, arguably one of the key nexus of a nation-building assignment for South Africa, has over its history been at considerable pains to define a national vision acceptable to all. The general moral high ground it occupies or rather occupied, and more specifically among its supporters, for being the first organised political entity in South Africa to embrace and fight that; South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people; South Africa will never be prosperous or free until all its people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities; and only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief (Freedom Charter 1955);   positions it as a naturally critical, though not exclusive, custodian of...

The political institutions, policies and mechanisms for reshaping a better nation can be conceptualised. The more challenging issue is embedding the right attitudes about the socio-political structure of those charged with the task. All socio-political, cultural and economic revolutions and evolutions require a set of congruent attitudes if they are to be of any significance and successful. The African National Congress’s (ANC) ascendance to power in 1994 and the successive electoral victories , did not only put the ANC, the liberation movement, in pole position to assume a central leadership position of the Republic of South Africa, but also bestowed on it the mantle of rekindling a declining South African national consciousness. The degree to which the ANC was and still is ready to deal with this challenge is one of the most vexing questions about post-Apartheid South Africa. The assertion that the time in South Africa, like all other times, will disperse nothing without restoring...

Over the last decade, the debate on Black Economic Empowerment has been receiving heightened attention in respect of its impact, value, and contribution to the transformation and/or otherwise of the South African economy. Most analyses of BEE examine the interests and behaviour of the ‘power holders’, ‘the empowering agents’, and ‘the empowerment beneficiaries’. In this vortex of analyses, little to no attention is being paid to the concept of BEE in respect of ‘what it is’, ‘does it have a thesis’, ‘what is its epistemology’, and ‘whether it can develop into a theory of doing business’ that can be teachable. It is in its ‘empowerment security’ realm where BEE as an economic transformation construct procures for interrogation of its episteme, particularly in order to not only ground it in theoretical terms but to condition the possibility of its overall objects. This article examines BEE in relation to its definition and/or redefinition of non-white entrepreneurship post its regulatory...