The th!nc Foundation

        South Africa is going through a difficult period of redefining itself as a democracy beyond the rhetorics of its past conflicts and tensions. Almost thirty-five years since the Mandela-De Klerk Accord, whose processing went through the  robust test of the CODESA negotiations and ultimately chronicled as the 1996 Constitution of South Africa. The country is yet to find congruence with the nation-building pulse chiseled into its constitutional democracy. The various convergences of purpose by its diverse people around day-to-day challenges that society faces are creating social cohesion away from the preferred rhetoric of some within its political elites. The discontent of communities, propelled by the chronic failures in service delivery consistency, is a reality that has in recent history emerged as an arc that bends society's trust in government away from the delusions of liberation grandeur.   The struggle against the inhumanity, which the aparthe...

   Generations and/or age groups are agents of social change and carriers of ‘intellectual’ and organizational alternatives to the status quo. Generations, especially youth, have historically been sources or practical agents of opposition, rebellions, and revolutions, interrogating existing and established societal ideas, and demolishing the status quo, mostly through the collective organization. As distinct members of society, generations are mostly glued to each other by their collective experience of history and/or its events and thus have a specific life chance to influence the outcome of ensuing periods. In the continuum of human experiences, generations stratify in a dynamic way the distinct ‘age cohort’ experiences and package them into a ‘consciousness’, also referred to as ‘past memories’. Interior to this consciousness is the transmission of a common (political, cultural, economic, national) heritage in a continuously reflexive, interactive, and precarious manne...

 1. The dawn of our democracy in 1994 marked a ‘doctrinal shift’ in how we understand the concept of liberation as the liberation movement has taught us. 2. The concept of liberation has for a long time meant the arrival of freedoms that included outright restitution and restoration of colonial losses by the oppressed 3. Our liberation was conceptualized to include a march to equality and an introduction of a regime that disallows unfettered regaining of erstwhile colonial gains that got accrued to the oppressor class 4. The CODESA settlement has unfortunately redefined the meaning and outcome of liberation. Liberation in CODESA was also about investment in the liberation of the former oppressor as a forward payment by the oppressed in order to gain ‘liberation’ 5. Liberation for the oppressor required the oppressed to guarantee the gains of the oppressor accrued from the oppression years. 6. International treaties and instruments would in this context be chiseled into the settleme...

        The ANC 55th Conference is getting close, the contest for leading Africa's oldest liberation movement is hotting up, policy rhetoric less defines the future of the liberation promise, the long-awaited final Zondo report is out, and recommendations are with the head of the national executive in whom the executive authority of the state vests, and South Africa is again on tenterhooks with its President and former head of national intelligence in a tension that might compromise confidence in our national security apparatus. The economy is performing at sub minimal, a condition of national disaster as a result of the punishing drought is in place, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality and surrounding areas are for all practical intents and purposes a water unsecured space, the Ukraine and Russia war has increased our food insecurity by a factor that threatens our food sovereignty, food processing factories are facing closure due to increases in the price o...

        In societies, interest groups would routinely contend to shape perspectives of the national interest, and convince 'rulers' to adopt their preferred policies. The influence of strategic solidarity groups on policy positions in South Africa has for a while proven to work for those that can finance the process, and predominate the ideational space, and public discourse. The activities of these groups are the reason why most policy decisions will impact society in favor of those that invest in changing the course of any discourse.  The South African Constitution, as a construct, has been designed to have respect and space for any strategic and moral arguments in its support to attract the attention of its functional entities, notably the judiciary and the executive. The constitutionality of lobbying is what our liberation also promises to citizens, however, the history of South Africa will always advantage those who lived in a context that prepared them to ...

        The day before Father's Day has been declared by me as a day that I will spend with all those children that meet the criteria to be grandchildren of me as their Big Daddy. This year 2022 was the inaugural Big Daddy Day, I invited my grandchildren Muhlurhi, Rhulani, Nkosiyabo, and Ringane for a braai. They are 6, 2, 1, and sub-1 years old respectively.  The day started with a photo shoot at a studio in Lynwood Road. The experience was exhilarating. Photoshoots generally attract varying responses from kids, in the company of strangers, and this time we had an orchestra of crying by Nkosiyabo and Ringane, whilst the big sisters were trying to calm things. (I will send pictures). The photoshoot has my entire family, except Nomsa, Innocent, and Folofelo. Innocent and Folofelo are my sons-in-law. We also missed my other family Toutie and Wife, Khukhi and Husband, Tebogo, Semakaleng, and all grandkids there. It was a blessed gathering. I felt the presence of th...

          That time when Fathers are foregrounded for praise, honor, and veneration has arrived, Sunday, June 19 is Father's Day. It is a day in which society pauses and says to its fathers, thank you for being who you are. For some, it is about reminiscing about the fathers they had and maybe venerating them.   As we celebrate our Fathers, it is a singular moment and honor to sit and reflect on the great lessons that my father taught me. As I mentioned in other renderings, my relationship with my father has always involved climbing up mountains or walking in the quietness and serenity of the grasslands somewhere in our beautiful land South Africa. In these encounters with his wisdom, storytelling or simply starting an argument that seemed to mean nothing would be the platform and conduit with which he would do his impartations. In the hierarchy of humanity, impartation happens when the one imparting has the authority to do so on an otherwise available and ...

          Among the collateral damage of the 'Phala Phala Farmgate' is the stability of our democracy. Logic dictates or insists that the pursuit of interests, which are the currency of politics, trumps higher ideals, such as the commitment to in-party comradeship, the sanctity of solidarity, and the virtues of democracy. Pursuit of political power, and somewhat vengefulness, tend to drive decisions of those that this democracy entrusted with its secrets and edifices undergirding functionalities therein.   As such, the blurring of roles, the politics-administration interface contradictions, and the political factionalism-inside-the-administration challenges appear to be well suited for explaining the calculus behind the opening of a criminal case by a former head of the national intelligence. The question where does this bravery and courage to go head-on with the head of state by a former head of intelligence might be an indicator of how weak support the Pr...

       Followership, a capacity or willingness to follow a leader, is a new area of focus for an inquisition by humanity, especially when leadership is increasingly becoming a burden to the peace that humanity perpetually yearns for. The rise and growth of civil society movements and politically unencumbered social activism is a sure sign that in matters of politics, followership is fast growing into an important aspect of regulating the often contradictory interests of society, otherwise also called the currency of politics. As society is shedding its collective sovereignty in favor of that of the individual, the right to the volition of individuals redefines their ability to subject themselves to leadership whose habitual behavior in variance with them is elevating the importance of followers to those leaders in society.   The diffusional prowess of followers in a sovereign individual protecting democracy is the new currency of political coalitions. The networ...