Event: South Africa After Mandela

Tuesday, May 20th

6:00 pm

“South Africa After Mandela”

At the PAN Office in Oakland, 6501 Telegraph Ave in Oakland

RSVP Requested: PriorityAfrica@PriorityAfrica.org

Mazibuko Jara is founder member of the Awethu People’s Platform for Social Justice and the Democratic Left Front and Walter Turner, PAN Board and Host of KPFA’s Africa Today.

Join us for a dialogue on the state of South Africa after the passing of Nelson Mandela in December 2013. This forum takes place two weeks after the 5th general election since South Africa’s historic and celebrated transition to a post-apartheid democratic dispensation on 27 April 1994.

South African elections were held again on May 7th 2014. Ten years earlier in 2004, African National Congress (ANC) won this 5th general election, the first since Mandela’s passing in December 2013. More than in any other post-apartheid elections, the 2014 elections clearly show early signs of significant popular misgivings with the state of South Africa’s democracy. The dream of democracy, equality, non-racialism, gender equality, social justice and redistribution are faltering.

Those who were oppressed by colonialism and apartheid are unhappy with Mandela’s ANC and looking for alternative political and policy platforms and vehicles. This dialogue not only seeks to understand contemporary South Africa but also possible trajectories it may follow in the next decade, what it means for democracy, liberation and social justice in Africa broadly.

Speaker: Mazibuko is a founder member of the Awethu People’s Platform for Social Justice and the Democratic Left Front. He is a former spokesperson and strategist of the South African Communist Party (SACP) which is part of a decades-old political alliance with the ANC. He is also the former Deputy National Secretary of the Young Communist League (YCL). He works in a small NGO promoting community-driven development in 13 villages in the Eastern Cape.

This event is co-sponsored by the U.S. Africa Network.

For more information, email: PriorityAfrica@PriorityAfrica.org