Nelson Mandela mini-series planned for TV
By Sarah | January 10, 2012
BBC, 9 January 2012
A mini-series based on the life of Nelson Mandela is in the pipeline, with producers including the former South African president’s grandson.
Writers attached to the project include Nigel Williams, who wrote the 2005 Helen Mirren mini-series, Elizabeth I. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tributes to Kader Asmal
By Sarah | June 24, 2011
Kader Asmal, who died on June 22, 2011, aged 76, was founder and leader of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement and was a member of Nelson Mandela’s first democratically elected government of South Africa.
Topics: News from ACTSA | 2 Comments »
Passing of Professor Kader Asmal
By Campaigns | June 23, 2011
Press Release
Office of Thabo Mbeki
The passing of Prof. Kader Asmal
Former President Thabo Mbeki has just learnt, with great sadness, the passing away of Prof. Kader Asmal today. Read the rest of this entry »
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Jean Middleton: 1928 – 2010
By Sarah | January 10, 2011
The Guardian, 3 January 2011
As the police hammered on the door of Jean Middleton’s flat in Johannesburg, South Africa, in July 1964, she shredded a document and flushed it down the toilet. “I had been prepared to eat it,” she said later. “I knew that would be difficult, because I’d eaten a piece of paper once before to prevent its falling into the hands of the police. It had been quite a small piece of paper, but I’d found it hard to get down.” When the police finally broke in and heard the toilet flushing, they threw her across the room in anger before they arrested her. Read the rest of this entry »
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Ian Stuart: A tribute
By Sarah | December 20, 2010
by Mike Sparham, ACTSA Standing Orders Committee
I was shocked and greatly saddened by the sudden death of Ian Stuart on 15 December 2010. Read the rest of this entry »
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Youth and Student Delegation 2010: Constitution Hill and COSATU
By admin | October 5, 2010
Wednesday, 8th September, Beshlie Paul
Visiting the national heritage site of Constitution Hill, it becomes plain to see how South Africans’ have transformed a brutal history into a beacon of hope for a the nation’s future. Our first stop was to visit the site of the old prison, Number Four, where great legends such as Mandela and Ghandi were imprisoned. Despite the relative dilapidation, to witness such conditions could not fail to make a mark on one’s soul. The remnants of the prison, particularly the cell with bars (where difficult prisoners were hosed with water and left, rain or shine, summer or winter) and the lashing chair (last used in 1983) illustrate levels of institutionalised cruelty that belong firmly in the past. White and black and coloured prisoners were kept separate and again, as at Robben Island, had differing conditions in which they existed. Even the workers in the prison experienced different conditions; black workers remember feeling more like prisoners than free men. Read the rest of this entry »
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Basil Davidson obituary
By Mark | July 12, 2010
Basil Davidson obituary
Radical journalist and historian who charted the death throes of colonialism in Africa
Born 9 November 1914; died 9 July 2010
By Victoria Brittain, guardian.co.uk, Friday 9 July 2010
Basil Davidson, who has died aged 95, was a radical journalist in the great anti-imperial tradition, and became a distinguished historian of pre-colonial Africa. An energetic and charismatic figure, he was dropped behind enemy lines during the second world war and joined that legendary band of British soldiers who fought with the partisans in Yugoslavia and in Italy. Years later, he was the first reporter to travel with the guerrillas fighting the Portuguese in Angola and Guinea-Bissau, and brought their struggle to the world’s attention. Read the rest of this entry »
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International sports boycott against apartheid
By Laura | February 25, 2010
The system of apartheid in South Africa existed in the field of sport as in all other walks of life. No ‘mixed’ sport was permitted by the official organisations which selected teams for international competitions. There were no open trials and competition was limited to whites only. This situation was well-known to the international sports bodies which granted unqualified recognition to the racialist, official organisations in South Africa.
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