Legal Mega Minds

By Sonny Mncedisi Dube As South Africa celebrated its Human Rights day two days ago, on the 21 st of March, it is apposite to discuss the anti-immigrant sentiment that perennially prevails in the country and its nexus to the complex racial relations.   South African history is born out of acute racism and inequalities hence every aspect of life including property ownership and employment is defined along racial borderlines. In addition to racism, xenophobia which is a general dislike of foreign nationals, is a vice that continually and particularly threatens Pan-Africanism, human rights and a colorblind Africa. Considering the impact of Apartheid on South African history, the current complex racial relations and marginalization of the black majority when it comes property ownership, wealth and employment among other aspects simply reflects continuities of the past and a deep-rooted legacy of imperialism. In the same vein, post-independence South Africa has seen a series of viole...

By Bright Maponga The right to vote is a fundamental human right which is considered very crucial in as far as the existence of democracy is concerned. [1] This is what has been termed the universal suffrage, which is defined as the rights conferred on adult citizens of a country to vote. [2] The granting of universal suffrage has had a long winding history at a global level with a plethora of countries going through wars to attain it including the 1798 French Revolution which was anchored on that issue amongst other things. Most African countries including Zimbabwe had laws which restricted the right to vote to only property owners. [3] The universal suffrage was amongst other things, one of the fundamental things that the liberation war was fought for in Zimbabwe; one man one vote. Although the war was won in Zimbabwe to have one man one vote, the simmering issue to the boil relates to the right of prisoners to vote. It is common cause that prisoners in Zimbabwe, since the attain...