Latest news with #postApartheid
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Power and simplicity: South African photographer wins Deutsche Börse prize
The South African photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa, whose experimental work has been praised for its 'power and simplicity' and explores family ties, myth and post-apartheid life, has won the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize 2025. Sobekwa was awarded the £30,000 prize, one of the most prestigious in the industry, at the Photographers' Gallery in London on Thursday for his work I Carry Her Photo With Me that focuses on the life and disappearance of his half-sister, Ziyanda. Anne-Marie Beckmann, the director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, said: 'The project is an exploration of a personal and familial narrative, of sibling relationships and of family dynamics. However, this personal story also informs us of the wider narrative of post-apartheid South Africa.' Ziyanda's disappearance is the focus of I Carry Her Photo With Me. The photographer did not see his half-sister for 11 years after a childhood accident when he was hit by a car while she was chasing him. His award-winning work is a scrapbook-like attempt to piece together their relationship and her life in those years. When Ziyanda resurfaced in 2013 she was living in a hostel near the family home and was seriously ill, with scars on her back. She died, aged just 22, shortly after the siblings were reunited, leaving Sobekwa with more questions than answers. Ziyanda would not allow him to take her photograph before she died – an absence the work revolves around. 'She's not the only one this ever happened to,' the photographer told the Observer last year. 'In South Africa, you will hear this story all the time. Every taxi driver will tell you about an uncle or someone else in their family … This is an ongoing dialogue. It's sort of open-ended … unresolved.' Photographs are broken up with hand-written notes, and domestic scenes are mixed with intimate moments such as his mother reading her Bible, which the judges said combined to create a 'powerful narrative, presented in a simple, clear, and accessible way'. Shoair Mavlian, the director of the Photographers' Gallery and chair of the Deutsche Börse jury, said: 'Lindokuhle winning the prize in 2025 reflects photography's ability to be a tool for transformative storytelling. It shows how simple tools like a camera, chemist-style prints, notebook, and pen can be used to tell a story that connects and resonates with people.' The jury also acknowledged the 'incredibly strong and resonant' work of the other shortlisted artists – Cristina De Middel, Rahim Fortune and Tarrah Krajnak – who received £5,000 each. This year's prize was described as 'a quiet, solemn and laconic show' by the photography journalist Charlotte Jansen, that ranged from 'lyrical, captivating portraits of Versace-clad Black cowboys in the American south to a woman hugging rocks'. Jansen said of the winning work: 'The pain of Sobekwa's grief is penetrating; in one image, he catches his shadow cast over her grave. His photographs are often hazy, evanescent light fading like memories, the camera trying to clutch and fix the image before it is gone for ever.' The exhibition, showcasing all four artists, is at the Photographers' Gallery until 15 June
Washington Post
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
A jazz club in Johannesburg plays its last songs and laments downtown's decline
JOHANNESBURG — On a Friday evening in downtown Johannesburg, a world away from the genteel suburbs that include some of Africa's wealthiest neighborhoods, groups of men huddle on a dark street as a security patrol whizzes past. Around the corner, popular jazz venue the Marabi Club is hosting its last Friday night show before closing down – another victim of the city center's decay and the jarring inequality in post-apartheid South Africa.
Associated Press
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
A jazz club in Johannesburg plays its last songs and laments downtown's decline
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — On a Friday evening in downtown Johannesburg, a world away from the genteel suburbs that include some of Africa's wealthiest neighborhoods, groups of men huddle on a dark street as a security patrol whizzes past. Around the corner, popular jazz venue the Marabi Club is hosting its last Friday night show before closing down – another victim of the city center's decay and the jarring inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. 'It's devastating. This is such an iconic space in the inner city and now we have one more reason not to come downtown. It's a true sign of the city's decline,' said Renata Lawton-Misra, 34, a climate change consultant, attending the concert with her husband, Kyle Schutte. For Schutte, the reasons behind the closure are clear. 'Safety concerns,' said the 38-year-old financial consultant who said he wouldn't normally set foot in the area. Downtown is now known for rampant crime and dilapidated infrastructure after an exodus of white people to the suburbs after the apartheid system of racial segregation ended in 1994. 'True or not, perception is the issue.' The Marabi Club had been part of a wave of investments designed to reinvigorate downtown, in particular the Maboneng district, about a decade ago. It was founded in 2017 by TJ Steyn, son of the late South African insurance magnate Douw Steyn, and Dale De Ruig. The club attracted visitors including Jay Z and Beyonce. 'Look at what we created here with amazing food and music,' said waiter Emanuel Mcotheli, pointing to the packed room of mainly Black urban professionals. The club was named after marabi, a jazz movement that emerged in the 1920s, to honor South Africa's rich musical heritage. Back then, miners and day laborers would congregate downtown and were drawn into illegal shebeens (taverns) by the sound of marabi, repetitive and improvisational keyboard tunes. The genre gained popularity through bands like the Jazz Maniacs and influential artists such as Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba. 'I grew up singing marabi,' said the club's resident vocalist Mbalizethu Siluma, 40, who sings soul and R&B, inviting the snappily dressed guests to dance after dinner. Despite the attention the club has received, South Africa's strict COVID-19 lockdown severely hit it and other businesses that hoped to reshape parts of downtown Johannesburg. A succession of short-lived mayors, eight in five years, made things worse as essential public works went undone. The neglect of downtown Johannesburg was exposed to international attention in 2023 when a fire in an overcrowded apartment building left unregulated by authorities killed 76 people. 'We knew it wasn't the perfect place to open a jazz club but we were hopeful that it was on an upward move,' De Ruig told The Associated Press. 'Ultimately, it was a bit of a false start.' He said the city has provided almost 'almost no support' and basic requests for better lighting, security and cleaning in the area were ignored. The city's government said it could not comment on the reasons behind a private venue shutting its doors, but spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said it was 'unfortunate for the creative economy.' For Lusanda Netshitenzhe, a member of the steering committee for the Joburg Crisis Alliance, a coalition working to end corruption and improve city government services, the Marabi Club's closing represents a broader issue. 'People unfortunately don't feel safe getting to Maboneng,' Netshitenzhe said. The area 'once celebrated ... is unfortunately no longer doing well due to continued deep systemic issues, poor urban governance and lack of leadership in the city of Johannesburg.' Mayor Dada Morero said in his State of the City address this month that 'drastic times call for drastic measures' and vowed to intensify efforts to revitalize the inner city, including rehabilitating abandoned buildings and installing public lighting. Any plans for reviving the area come too late for the club and its musicians. 'Maybe there's something better coming … look at how this place is, Marabi isn't dying,' Siluma said before hitting the stage. De Ruig and his partner are considering moving the club to Steyn City, a gated commercial and residential estate owned by the Steyn family, 32 kilometers (20 miles) north of Johannesburg's city center. Downtown is left to those who can't afford to leave. ___ More AP Africa news:
The Herald
09-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald
Jobs, inflation and growth — how do we make it work?
Celebrating more than 30 years of democracy with the marking of April 27, most South Africans would love to get a quick fix for the economy. A magic wand to reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality in the post-apartheid SA we love could bring back some of the Madiba magic from 1994. What about the relationship between inflation and unemployment? Based on the Phillips curve, an inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment, in theory could reduce unemployment and increase wages. This means that by keeping inflation low, government and monetary regulatory bodies are contributing to higher unemployment, according to the theoretical model. Can it really be that simple — create more jobs by increasing inflation? Could consumers, who breathed a sigh of relief over the VAT increase hiatus, afford higher inflation in the local SA economic climate? SA's unemployment is structural, according to local economists who along with others have debunked the Phillips curve. They argue the stubborn unemployment rate in SA makes it fairly unresponsive to monetary conditions. Employment opportunities need to be created faster than the rate at which the labour force grows to reduce our unemployment rate, which remains persistent nationally at just over the 30% mark. Can we create more jobs for unemployed graduates and matriculants in the country? Where do we find jobs for our nephews and nieces, our sons and daughters, with the cost of brown bread that was R1.95 in 1995 and in 2025, has increased about tenfold to an average of R19. While salaries may have kept up with these prices to some degree, did the job opportunities? The simple question of supply and demand becomes important when answering this question. While the youth are being educated through tertiary studies and internships, many remain unemployed. This then begs the question if these tertiary institutions are matching the skills and output of their educational organisations to the needs in the Vuca (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) marketplace. We live in the 21st century where big tech has disrupted the working world. The skills required from a modern-day graduate are related to problem-solving, managing and making sense of big data and operating the various technologies which have increased efficiencies in manufacturing, but have cut labour significantly. Let's consider two industries: newspapers and automakers, which are both relevant to our province and local economy. Big printing presses have over the last couple of years been made redundant or reduced, which meant job losses for printing press operators and technicians. News is consumed digitally and instantly, and therefore a new skill set is required of the newspaper editor and editorial staff. The Herald is a good example of this, having transformed over the past 180 years to remain relevant to the local community. OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) make big announcements of investments in the province and country; however, these investments do not always include huge employment figures. This is because of advanced robotics and the efficiency associated with automation in the manufacturing sector; one simply needs to visit any local factory in East London, Gqeberha or Kariega to view these giant robots building parts and vehicles. The skill set of an average blue collar worker is much more sophisticated and technical than ever before. These investments into our local economy by OEMs — both locally and internationally — are crucial and critical for securing existing labour, but may not significantly increase job opportunities. Therefore, we chip away at the block of unemployment much, much slower than before. Consider the retirement age for public servants at 65. Does this not further stagnate the job creation prospects of the youth, making it harder for first-time entrants to get a foot in the door of the job market? Perhaps the magic wand of fixing the economy is not as simple as we hoped, however, there are still decisive steps to take as a collaborative to make the Eastern Cape and SA economy stronger. Our future labour force needs to be highly skilled, and tertiary institutions must be aligned to the needs of industry. We should become innovative and not get left behind in the technology race, but lead as a province, country and continent. As a province we certainly have pockets of excellence and need to diversify and multiply these opportunities for the generations to come. Dr Luvuyo Bono qualified with a doctorate in labour law (LLD) at Nelson Mandela University in 2023, where he also holds the title of adjunct professor of law. He was admitted as an advocate of the high court in 2000 and has contributed to key labour law legislation in SA. He is the board chairperson of the Coega Development Corporation, and writes in his personal capacity. The Herald
