Category Archives: Imraan Buccus

Daily Maverick: We must build a powerful united front against xenophobia

Imraan Buccus, The Daily Maverick

The ongoing attacks on women and migrants have led to deep pessimism about the state of SA. Social cohesion and human rights seem like a distant dream, and it’s not just the president who has been absent. Civil society and trade unions largely seem missing in action too.

Alarmingly, one major civil society organisation issued a long statement on xenophobia which presented the crisis as one solely suffered by African migrants, and completely left out the fact that many migrants from Asia have also been attacked. This statement, with its crass disregard for Asian migrants was, itself, xenophobic.  Continue reading →

VOCFM: Selective responses to disaster by the middle classes

By Imraan Buccus, VOCFM

The fires in Knysna and elsewhere in the Eastern Cape are a terrible disaster. People have lost their homes and all their worldly goods and been traumatised. The outpouring of support and concern for the victims of this disaster is a very positive development that should be welcomed by all.

But devastating fires are not a unique development. In fact they are an everyday feature of life in South Africa. In fact just a few days ago, 7 children under the age of 7 died in shack fires in Wyebank, Durban. Continue reading →

The Mercury: A revolution is building in South Africa

This article by Imraan Buccus was published in The Mercury and the Sunday Independent.

A REVOLUTION seems to be building in South Africa.

As inequality and developmental deficits persist, South Africans are standing up and demanding social justice. The “rebellion of the poor” has most often emerged from the informal settlement. But since the beginning of regular protests from informal settlements, protests have also spread to the mines and to university campuses.

But the informal settlements have been more or less constant sites of struggle. There is no doubt that shack-dwellers have often been given the short end of the stick in their attempt to carve out an existence on the fringes of the cities. Despite this, one often hears middle-class citizens talking about how frustrated they are “with these people constantly protesting”. The poor are often spoken about in truly derogatory ways. The middle-class often express prejudices that sound like they come straight from the colonial script.  Continue reading →

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Imraan Buccus - A Revolution is Building

Sunday Tribune: Building a left alliance remains critical – and challenging

Building a left alliance remains critical – and challenging, writes Imraan Buccus, Sunday Tribune 

YET again we have had a tumultuous political week. May Day in 2017 turned out to be the most significant May Day in South African history since 1986.

Firstly, Numsa, and its new federation, Saftu, celebrated the day in Durban with a march from Curries Fountain, where Cosatu was launched in 1985.

For the new federation to decide to show its strength in Durban, the heartland of Jacob Zuma’s remaining support, was a bold and important act. Continue reading →