Professor Kotze, an international politics analyst from the University of South Africa, discusses the recent UN resolution that named slavery as the gravest crime against humanity, led by Ghana and supported by 40 African Union member states. He argues that while this resolution is not legally binding, it sets an important moral precedent that may be built upon in the future.
"The most important aspect of this resolution, it's that it creates a moral statement; it has moral authority, and countries that have been implicated in this, therefore, must take their own decisions based on this," Prof Kotze says.
Professor Kotze also explains the reasons why those, including the US, Israel, and Argentina, who voted against this resolution may have done so. In the case of the United States, he notes that the current administration does not have much consideration for history; thus, it is unsurprising that they would vote against a resolution that seeks to address past injustices.
"The attitude of the Trump administration is very much that they don't look towards the past, they don't look at what happened in the past. They also don't acknowledge the role of immigrants or foreigners in the US when it comes to the development over many years of the American economy," Prof. Kotze adds.
We also discuss Southern African Liberation Day, which is commemorated on the same day as the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, where the Angolan army, aided by forces from Cuba, the Soviet Union, Namibia, and the ANC’s armed wing, defeated the apartheid-era South African army and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which was supported by the U.S. This battle was a critical turning point in Southern African liberation showing that the apartheid government was not invincible.
Today, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urges those living in Southern Africa to maintain the international solidarity that won them the sovereignty which they fought so hard to gain. Here, Prof. Metji Makgoba from the University of Limpopo offers his critical view on the state of Southern African independence.
"The discourse of liberation in the continent has actually lost meaning because they sing […] songs, they remember people who fought tirelessly for freedom and democracy but still take economic scripts, political scripts from Washington, from the IMF, and from World Bank."
Finally, we dive into the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) gender conference, where the key issues of discussion were the scourge of gender-based violence in South Africa, the rights of care workers, and the implementation of COSATU’s gender policies. Sindisiwe Chikunga, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, joins the show to discuss her perspective on women’s issues in South Africa.
To find out more, tune into this edition of the Nnete Fela Show.
► Listen to all episodes of the Nnete Fela Show.