Two pioneering studies which expose in new detail how multinational corporations avoid paying tax in a developing nation are likely to intensify pressure on the largest firms operating in Africa to pay their fair share of taxes to the countries in which they earn their profits.
Read on: https://allafrica.com/stories/201901160689.html
An account of how former U.S. President George H W Bush moved to recognise an important leader of the struggle against apartheid. (Written upon Bush’s death.)
“I have been pleased today to welcome to the White House Mrs. Albertina Sisulu, of Soweto, South Africa… She personifies the struggle for human rights and human dignity, and her presence here is an inspiration to us all.”
In these words, former President George H.W. Bush – who died in Houston, Texas late on Friday – signalled to South Africans in the first months of his …
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Ahead of the election of a new leader of South Africa’s governing African National Congress in December 2017, the readers of allAfrica.com, the website I have helped edit and run since 2006, knew the one contestant in the race, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as the former chair of the African Union Commission.
But they didn’t know the other, Cyril Ramaphosa, nearly as well. Having followed his rise first as a union then a party leader, I felt the story of a person I had observed as a canny political operator was one worth …
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President Jacob Zuma faces a vote of no confidence tabled in Parliament by his own party within days if he does not resign his office.
Read on: https://allafrica.com/stories/201802130907.html
by John Allen
A reflection on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s first visit to South Africa
Somehow I managed to miss Bruce Springsteen when others in my generation were listening to him.
I knew who he was, vaguely. But I guess journalism in the wake of first the Soweto uprising, then the states of emergency after the Vaal uprising of 1984, gave us all the excitement we needed. So I wasn’t among the South Africans who poured across the border into Zimbabwe in 1988 to hear him compare “the systematic apartheid …
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The world was treated to a display at the official memorial service for Nelson Mandela of how South Africa was freed from apartheid and became a democracy: a feisty, even bloody-minded citizenry determined to have its say, backed by massive international support.
Add to that a resilience of spirit which enables them to turn a time of mourning into one of joyous celebration of the life being remembered.
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It is only a small exaggeration to say that Desmond Tutu is as well known as the pope or the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader. The first black archbishop of Cape Town, this African of the Anglican tradition was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa. Tutu, as a Christian minister, has won himself a place on the world stage as someone who can draw attention to an issue, such as racism, violence or the need for forgiveness.
The selection of writings …
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Working with a rabble-rouser
From Times Online
October 10, 2007
John Allen spent 13 years following in the wake of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as the author of his biography, he explains what motivated the rabble-rouser and what kept him going through the dark days of apartheid
by Joanna Sugden
He’s been called an “angry, evil and embittered little bishop” by Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe which must be a badge of honour.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who turned 76 on Sunday, can claim so many titles, Nobel Peace Laureate, anti-apartheid activist, chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but in his authorised …
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David Rosman, New York Journal of Books
When people meet a man or woman of spirit, peace or national leadership, the reaction is almost always the same; there is an aura about these men and women that exudes power, confidence and leadership. I have not had the honor of sitting in the presence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but believe he, too, meets this criterion. So when I had the opportunity to review a collection of his speeches and letters, I jumped at it.
The title—God Is Not a Christian—is intriguing. The Archbishop …
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Winnipeg Free Press – By: John Longhurst
Posted: 06/25/2011
Is God a Christian?
I must confess I had never asked myself that question. Then I heard about a new book about Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Titled God Is Not A Christian: And Other Provocations, the book is a collection of sermons, speeches and interviews given by the well-known South African pastor, who rose to prominence in the 1980s as a vocal and determined opponent of apartheid.
According to Tutu, the answer to the question is no — God is not a Christian.
“His concern is for all …
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