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IOL News
04-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Cultural ambassadors rally for support station faces financial crisis
Southside FM faces a financial crisis. Image: Facebook CULTURAL leaders have expressed concern and rallied support for Southside FM, a station facing financial challenges, as they discuss strategies for its future sustainability. Selvan Naidoo, director of the 1860 Heritage Centre, said the station had consistently failed to meet the needs of the people it was meant to serve. 'It is sad that despite its incredible potential, SouthsideFM has failed to meet the needs of the majority Dravidian Indian African Diaspora living in South Africa. 'Bereft of a strategic vision to grow the station beyond a fiefdom of egoistic leadership, Southside FM has consistently failed to meet the needs of the people it was meant to serve. It is welcoming to see its present board reaching out to the community to develop a vision and mission that will help grow the station to meet its full potential. 'It is incumbent on the new board and all of us to put our shoulders to the wheel in ensuring that Southside FM develops a strategic vision that will be delivered with accountability, good governance and competence. Southside and its people deserve this much and much more,' he said. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Les Govender, deputy chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) said the financial crisis at the station was unfortunate. 'It was unfortunate to hear that Southside FM has been experiencing administrative and financial challenges and had to relocate from Westcliff to the premises in Silverglen. The meeting was robust, engaging the officials who have taken the initiative to call the meeting with a view of resolving the urgent issues,' he added. Govender said it was agreed at the public meeting that the committee that is already in place should continue to resolve administrative issues such as the status of the licence, registration of the station as a non-profit company, and attending to tax compliance matters. 'Once these issues have been resolved, all of us who are committed to preserving and promoting South Indian languages and culture need to work together and ensure that Southside FM grows in popularity and audience numbers. This will encourage advertising and sponsorship that will make the station sustainable. 'It's unacceptable that staff are not receiving regular salaries due to a lack of funding. I must commend the present staff component for their commitment and dedication. In these difficult times it's not easy to find such dedicated individuals who make themselves available to keep the station going. I have full confidence in Thaniga Moodley, Tansen Nepaul and others who are in the committee and I pledge my support to them in their efforts,' added Govender.
IOL News
04-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Construction begins on the 1860 Indentured Workers Monument in Durban
Construction work on the 1860 Indentured Workers Monument has begun along the Durban Beachfront. Image: Selvan Naidoo / 1860 Heritage Centre Construction work on the 1860 Indentured Workers Monument, situated along Durban's uShaka Beach promenade, has begun. Culturalists and stakeholders regard the monument as a step towards honouring the legacy of Indian indentured labourers, who arrived in Durban from 1860. The monument is expected to encapsulate their sacrifices and contributions. On Friday, Selvan Naidoo, director of 1860 Heritage Centre in Durban, said: 'We are proud to see that construction is under way, with the monument expected to be completed ahead of the 165th commemoration of the arrival of the first indentured workers on November 16, 2025.' According to IOL reports, the contractor and artist Brendon Edwards explained that the monument is 8m high and will have the names of 684 Indian indentured labourers and 29 individuals who perished on the ship Belvedere. Edwards explained that the sugarcane archer will consist of 684 strands representing the DNA of those who made the trip. This will then flow into the additional bronze that has now been added, representing the family of the indentured. The monument will also include a pond to symbolise the ocean, water, and the journey the labourers made. Embracing the design is the Zulu nation's kraal, welcoming the indentured. At a recent sod turning ceremony, KZN Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli said the R5 million project is set to be completed in November 2025, and that he had requested regular updates on the construction because he wanted to see it finalised. Prince Ishwar Ramlutchman Mabheka Zulu, the president of Sivananda World Peace Foundation and Africa coordinator for Gopio International, a global organisation for people of Indian origin, applauded Premier Ntuli for his keen interest in the monument. Ramlutchman said that the Girmitiya/SA Indian Community will finally have a monument. 'This monument was unanimously approved at a mass gathering of Indian leaders. A life-size Indian/Girmitiya family with an Arch will be installed. The committee that unanimously agreed on this design will gather soon at the site to look at the progress of the historic monument. No individual or organisation will have the right to claim ownership of this monument, as this will be registered under the National Heritage department,' Ramlutchman said. Omie Singh, president of the KZN International Business Association, said this was exciting news. He described the monument as a tribute to the contribution Indian indentured labourers made to the economy of Durban, KZN, and South Africa over the past 160 years. 'This is a success story in itself that will pay homage to the work done in various facets to bring this project to completion,' he said. [email protected] An artist's impression of the 1860 Indentured Workers Monument that is expected to be built along the Durban Beachfront near uShaka Beach. Image: File
The Star
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Freedom Charter at 70: tapestry of hope
Selvan Naidoo and Kiru Naidoo | Published 7 hours ago AS SOUTH Africa, this Thursday marks the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, adopted on June 26, 1955, in a defiant gathering in Kliptown, Soweto, it is timely to interrogate its legacy not with nostalgic reverence but with the sharp lens of critique. The Freedom Charter was born of a radical imagination. The activists gathered there dared to envision a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, prosperous, and egalitarian country. It remains the cornerstone of our nation's constitutional democracy and its rights-based ethos. Yet, this document, hailed as a beacon of liberation, casts a long shadow over a society fractured by enduring inequalities, where the widening gap between rich and poor mocks the charter's lofty promises. To reflect on this milestone is to confront the paradox of a nation that celebrates its democratic triumphs, while wrestling with the reality of unfulfilled aspirations. The Freedom Charter was no mere political manifesto. It was a subversive act of collective dreaming, woven from the aspirations of the African National Congress (ANC), South African Indian Congress (SAIC), Coloured People's Congress, and Congress of Democrats. South Africans of Indian descent, in whose veins ran a century of resistance against colonial indignities from indenture to segregation, were integral to this tapestry. Activists like Swaminathan Gounden, a worker from Durban's industrial heart of Jacobs, embodied the courage of the marginalised. At great peril, Gounden slipped through the apartheid state's surveillance to attend the Kliptown gathering, a journey fraught with the risk of arrest or worse. His return to Faulks shoe factory was met with swift retribution - dismissal for daring to dream of a world where 'the people shall govern.' Such sacrifices were not isolated. Among the apartheid regime's repressive responses was the 1956 Treason Trial, preceded by lightning arrests that ensnared 156 activists, including Chief Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, and Indian African stalwarts like Monty Naicker, MP Naicker and Kay Moonsamy. The trial, intended to smother dissent, instead amplified the Charter's rousing call, exposing the moral bankruptcy of a system that equated the fight for social and economic justice with treason. Since 1994, South Africa has drawn on the Freedom Charter's lofty promises, enshrining its principles in the 1996 Constitution - a document lauded for its progressive ideals such as an independent judiciary, a vibrant civil society, freedom of faith, and the dismantling of racial hierarchies. Indian Africans, once relegated to the margins in the obscene racial pecking order, have carved spaces in the nation's political and economic fabric. Census data points to the fact that people of Indian origin have been net economic beneficiaries of the democratic state on a scale second only to those of European descent. Yet, this narrative of progress is haunted by a brutal truth - South Africa is among the world's most unequal societies, its Gini coefficient a statistical indictment of a dream deferred. The opulence of Zimbali's villas stands in sharp contrast with the squalor of Cato Crest's shacks. Unemployment, officially upwards of 32%, ravages black youth especially, while land reform and wealth redistribution, which were central demands of the Freedom Charter, are caught in bureaucratic red tape and elite capture. The ANC, once the standard-bearer of liberation, is being suffocated by corruption. Its moral authority has been eroded by governance failures that have left the 'born-free' generation grappling in large part with economic despair. Should today's youth honour the sacrifices of Goonam, Gounden, Luthuli, and that golden generation? Young peoples' discontent has been channelled into movements like #FeesMustFall, which echo the Freedom Charter's demand for accessible education. Yet, others, burdened by the immediacy of survival, dismiss the Freedom Charter as a relic, its promises hollowed out by a post-apartheid state that has traded revolutionary zeal for compromises with traditional and new elites. Social media is a vocal outlet for their disillusionment, with hashtags demonising political and economic grandees. This generational rupture threatens to sever the connective tissue between the struggle's heroes and a youth population that feels betrayed by the very democracy they inherit. The state has failed to translate constitutional rights into tangible material benefits. There has instead been an inordinate focus on the burgeoning (and unsustainable) social welfare system as a breathing valve to hold the poor at bay. To read the Freedom Charter in 2025 is to ponder a text that is both prophetic and accusatory. It prophesied a South Africa free from apartheid's straitjacket, a vision partially realised in the nation's democratic stability. In a world convulsed by war from Ukraine's battlefields to Gaza's ruins to the Congo and Sudan, South Africa's upholding of the rule of law and constitutionalism is no small feat. Yet, the Freedom Charter also chastises with its words, translating into a mirror reflecting the nation's failure to bridge the gulf between rich and poor. The struggles and sacrifices of those who fought for freedom compel us to ask - what does it mean to honour a struggle when its fruits are so unevenly distributed? Hope lies not in blind optimism but in the radical act of reimagining the Freedom Charter's possibilities. South Africa's people must reclaim the courage of Kliptown - its defiance, its unity, and its insistence on justice to forge a future where the people truly govern. Selvan Naidoo and Kiru Naidoo are co-authors with Paul David and Ranjith Choonilall of The Indian Africans, published by Micromega and available at * The Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal will host a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter with the launch of veteran activist Saro Naicker's biography, Love for Learning, at 6pm today (June 26) on the Westville campus. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. THE POST
