Thoughts on the New South Africa (ePub)

Dr Neville Alexander, who passed away on 27 August 2012, was one of South Africa's leading intellectuals and a former revolutionary who spent ten years on Robben Island as a fellow-prisoner of Nelson Mandela. The uncomfortable questions which he raised and the answers with which he wrestled will be exercising the minds of South Africans with increasing urgency both in the immediate and in the long-term future of this country.Thoughts on the New South Africa is a collection of essays which Alexander brought together just before his death. It reflects on the main issues that preoccupied him throughout his life and sheds light on South African society today.My sincere wish is that readers will consider these thoughts, take a step back and try to get a perspective on what has actually been happening since 1990, when the new South Africa began. Even more optimistically, I hope that such a rethink will inspire the reader to want to find a point of engagement, with a view to initiating or becoming part of trajectories that can lead to that other country most of us had in mind during the years of 'Sturm und Drang', especially during the 1980s. - Neville Alexander (Thoughts on the New South Africa: Introduction)The three main issues included the fundamental necessity for South Africans to move away from race consciousness and think along the lines of far more real and relevant categories of class, gender and language; the importance of children learning to read, write and think in their own mother tongue while understanding the need for mastery in an international langague; and the struggle for a socialist world of justice and equality for all.