Editorial

New Frame steps back

After close to four years of intense work we must now reimagine how journalism can and should be done in a moment when the coils of social and political crisis squeeze ever more tightly.

By:New Frame
Podcast Radio New Frame

S8 Episode 7: The Billy Bragg interview

In an exclusive interview, singer and activist Billy Bragg talks about making music with meaning, Marx, refusing to give in to Boris Johnson – and passion on an Italian volcano.

Hosted by:Charles Leonard
Features

When you kiss nyaope, you marry it

The low-grade form of heroin continues to strip the youth of their future and the young women living in a drug house in Ekurhuleni say the police do not take them seriously.

By:Nation Nyoka
Culture

At play in the realm of political assassinations

A drama from Limpopo tackles the disturbing reality of politicians killing each other for positions. It is a cry from young South Africans for this deplorable situation to change.

By:Anna Majavu
Features

Prisons are for profit, not our safety

In Abolition Geography, contemporary thinker Ruth Wilson Gilmore looks at crime, incarceration and alternatives that focus on social upliftment rather than the prison-industrial complex.

By:Christopher McMichael

Editor's Pick

News

Izishoshovu zokuhlaliswa kwabantu zisengozini eThembisa

Ngenxa nje yokuba nesibindi sokubuza ngokungaphumeleli kohlelo lokutholelwa indawo entsha kwabantu abahlala emikhukhiwni besuswa kwenye sekufake amalungu Abahlali baseMjondolo enkingeni yokuzingelwa yizinkabi namaphoyisa kamasipala.

By:Maru Attwood
Features

Kasi life through a new lens

Kombonation disrupts perceptions of the township by exploring its seldom celebrated beauty and rich culture. The founders’ new Kaofela Kaofela residency conjures the spirit of togetherness.

By:Aneesa Adams
Culture

A new stage for the National Arts Festival

The organisers had to get inventive to hold the festival in Makhanda again this year, but are passionate about ensuring that it thrives for artists as well as audiences.

By:Atiyyah Khan
News

Izitiya ezidolophini sesinye isisombululo kubuqhophololo nendlala

Izifundiswa nabalimi bezitiya ezisecaleni kwendlela bathi ukulima ezidolophini kungayigxoth’ indlala, kucuthe umgama wonikezelo lokutya, kuncedise kutshintsho olukhawulezayo kwimeko yokuhlala, luphinde ludibanise uluntu obelukade lungaboni ngasonye.

By:Anna Majavu
Editorial

From courage to collapse

The disintegration of the ANC’s integrity and its capacity to drive a social project is part of a wider crumbling of progressive politics.

By:New Frame
Video

WATCH | Artists find new horizons in Dakar

After a two-year hiatus, artists from across Africa as well as Cuba have gathered to exhibit their work at the Dak’Art 2022 biennale in Senegal’s vibrant capital of Dakar.


Producer:Dara Kell

Podcasts

Radio New Frame

S8 Episode 6: What of our mother tongues?

With more than 7 000 languages globally, we look at mother tongues. Can Kiswahili be Africa’s lingua franca? And we explore two people’s complex relationships with their languages: Setswana and Arabic.

Hosted by:Bonolo Mokua
Radio New Frame

S8 Episode 5: Black Afrikaans | Mandela and MK

To mark June 16, we unearth Afrikaans’ Black roots and focus on contemporary Black Afrikaans. Also, a new book on how Nelson Mandela led Umkhonto weSizwe to war against Africa’s strongest army.

Hosted by:Musawenkosi Cabe
Radio New Frame

S8 Episode 4: SA’s sterilisation shame | Saxonwold Shebeen

Shamed by 2020 exposés of forced sterilisations at public hospitals, the health department vowed to act – but victims still await justice. Also, is the Saxonwold Shebeen open for a drink?

Hosted by:Tebadi Mmotla

News

News

Housing activists under threat in Thembisa

Daring to question the botched relocation of shack dwellers from one settlement to another has brought Abahlali members to the attention of hitmen and the metro police.

By:Maru Attwood
News

Overworked Eastern Cape education assistants unpaid

Young people hired under the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative in the province are teaching classes without supervision and some have not been paid last months’ stipends.

By:Anna Majavu
News

Fleurhof housing no safe haven for the elderly

The development, touted as one of South Africa’s premier integrated residential projects, is failing to live up to the expectations of residents, who complain about shoddy workmanship.

By:Oupa Nkosi
News

High court finds protest fee unconstitutional

The Johannesburg high court has ruled that the City of Johannesburg charging convenors a levy to provide traffic control and policing during demonstrations violates the right to protest.

By:Musawenkosi Cabe
News

Yeoville market fire devastates traders’ livelihoods

A fire at the Yeoville African Market in Johannesburg has left some sellers destitute, with shopkeepers saying vigilante group Operation Dudula threatened a week earlier to burn down the market.

By:Dennis Webster, Jan Bornman
News

Refugees camped outside UNHCR face eviction

Having been released from detention following their 2019 protest, a group returned to the pavement outside the UN refugee agency’s Pretoria offices. But residents and landlords don’t want them there.

By:Jan Bornman
News

Police leave East Rand shack dwellers out in the cold

A group of people who organised a new occupation, have been left homeless and brutalised after their shacks and belongings were destroyed. They blame an uncaring government for their plight.

By:Naledi Sikhakhane
News

Urban gardens one solution to corruption and hunger

Academics and pavement gardeners say growing food in the city can alleviate hunger, shorten the food supply chain, mitigate climate shock and bring previously divided communities together.

By:Anna Majavu
News

Township residents without power for three years

Beleaguered residents of Palm Springs in the Emfuleni local municipality in Gauteng have been living without electricity and with sewage running in the streets.

By:Magnificent Mndebele

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Features

Features

Frantz Fanon’s revolutionary spirit lives on

A new collection of essays uses the works of the psychiatrist and radical political philosopher to explore how a community’s language and capacity for thought and wit threaten the state.

By:Raj Patel
Features

Cartoon | Paper pogrom

In this week’s cartoon, Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi torches the rights of thousands of Zimbabweans who have held South African residence permits for more than a decade.

By:Carlos Amato
Features

Sharp Read | Reflections on death

As a society, we are uncomfortable with death. But hidden in grief and tragedy is potential transcendence, if we allow ourselves to contemplate our own inevitable demise.

By:David Gorin
Features

Paediatric surgeons take care to a new holistic high

Confidence in the public healthcare system is at an all-time low – often for good reason. Surgeons for Little Lives shows us how simple interventions lead to dramatic improvements.

By:Sazi Bongwe
Features

Cartoon | A bit more red

In this week’s cartoon, Latin American socialism continues its resurgence with Gustavo Petro’s victory in the Colombian presidential elections, giving the country its first left-wing government.

By:Carlos Amato

Culture

Culture

Pierre Kwenders’ evolution will not be silent

The artist’s third album traverses a new musical terrain as he keeps on expanding his sound and working with friends from around the world.

By:Lloyd Gedye
Culture

Artists in residence reflect their Makhanda life

Two collectives, Spaza and orangcosong, took up residencies at the National Arts Festival and created projects that speak to the town and the spaces they found themselves in.

By:Atiyyah Khan
Culture

The good works of the Sir Alba Arts Academy

Dancers from the small academy in Etwatwa are winning locally and qualifying internationally, but will never compete overseas unless the institutions meant to support such initiatives actually do so.

By:Tonderai Chiyindiko
Culture

Facing the beast of rape, femicide and child murder

Gender-based violence is highlighted in several heartbreaking performances at the Makhanda National Arts Festival.

By:Anna Majavu
Culture

Long Read | Frida Kahlo: A ribbon around a bomb

In this extract from her recent lecture at the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation, Helena Chávez Mac Gregor reckons with the memory and place of Frida Kahlo in our contemporary imagination.

By:Helena Chávez Mac Gregor
Culture

Greer Valley’s curatorial practice of care

From Stellenbosch to KwaZulu-Natal and Senegal’s Dak’Art Biennale, the curator’s exhibitions sensitively explore land, belonging and the violence of the archive.

By:Neo Maditla
Culture

Green light spells danger

In Text Messages this week, monomania takes many forms. Most deadly perhaps is Jay Gatsby’s hunt in the present for the possibility of bringing the past back to life.

By:Darryl Accone

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Sport

Sport

Denis Odoi, a new star for the Black Stars

A good work ethic saw the Belgian-Ghanaian defender go further in his football career than expected. Now he has the chance to play for Ghana in the World Cup in Qatar.

By:Oluwashina Okeleji
Sport

Next up for Zintle Mpupha? World Cups

The Springbok rugby player jumped at the chance to play league rugby in England, the first South African woman to do so. Now she has her sights set on the upcoming Sevens and 15s World Cups.

By:Ayanda Frances Felem
Sport

Jennifer Cudjoe fights on and will not be silenced

The popular United States-based player is speaking out about the shameful state of women’s football in Ghana, where players have been marginalised in many ways for way too long.

By:Emmanuel Ayamga
Sport

Test cricket is dead, but not for the eager Proteas

Even before the demise of this format of the game was predicted, the women’s team had little opportunity to experience and enjoy it. They are keen to change this while they still can.

By:Daniel Gallan
Sport

Mongezi Mata is thinking big

The European 90kg champion from Addo hopes his international success will inspire and help facilitate the next generation of bodybuilders from the Eastern Cape.

By:Sibongile Portia Jonas
Sport

Netball is the centre circle for Leonard Masao

The former provincial player did what every netballer does, but in his own remarkable way. He pivoted and changed direction to become South Africa’s highest-ranked male umpire in the sport.

By:Karien Jonckheere
Sport

The woman behind Ghana’s first skatepark

When Sandy Alibo visited in 2015, she connected with Accra’s small but vibrant surfing and skating community. It was enough for her to move there and help grow the sports in the country.

By:Lee Nxumalo
Sport

Ayrton Sweeney is on point for his pool performance

The first male synchronised swimmer to represent South Africa has only been at it for a few months, but he’s glad he switched from his previous events to embrace this graceful yet difficult sport.

By:Karien Jonckheere
Sport

Thato Mokeke knows his path

The footballer who has had much success in Cape Town knows through personal experience that playing careers don’t last, so he’s already planning his next move.

By:Buyeleni Sibanyoni

Editorial and Analysis

Editorial

Behind Day Zero is a metro that has failed to care

When the taps run dry in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, it will be the failures of the political class that plunge more than one million residents into disaster.

By:New Frame
Analysis

Safa needs reforms, not simply a new leader

Regardless of who is elected president of South Africa’s football governing body on 25 June, the issues plaguing the game will persist because the leading candidates are part of the problem.

By:Njabulo Ngidi
Analysis

Let the people make their own history

History has shown that the only way to achieve democracy, dignity and freedom is through mass struggle and organising. The people of Swaziland and Morocco continue to fight.

By:Jonis Ghedi Alasow