Des Erasmus

Middle Earth

Christian; wife to the brilliant @JonathanErasmus; journalist; sea lover. Frequent abuser of semi colons. Tea can never be too strong - Pliny The Elder

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Articles

Ukubekezela: Mapping a fractured terrain

3 days ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

Earlier this month, the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) Gallery at the University of Johannesburg inaugurated a dual exhibition that featured Senzeni Marasela’s Waiting and Remembering, from 7 to 22 June. The exhibition expanded Marasela’s commitment to art as public memory work. As a VIAD Research Associate and Thami Mnyele Foundation fellow, Marasela’s practice resonates far beyond local geographies — a transnational dialogue that bridges past, present and speculative futures.
Why 100% fruit juice should come with a sugar warning label

4 days ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

Apples, oranges and grapes are healthy fruits. But when they are turned into juice they pack as much, or more, sugar than some sodas or energy drinks. Under South Africa’s proposed food labelling regulations 100% fruit juiceswon’t be required to show a high sugar warning on their packaging because their sugars are “naturally occurring”.
India’s ancient art of yoga captures Durban

4 days ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

The International Day of Yoga was born from an address by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UN General Assembly in 2014. Within three months, on 11 December that year, 193 member states and 173 co-sponsor countries voted unanimously to enshrine 21 June as a global day to honour the ancient Indian discipline of yoga.
Holding the powerful to account: War crimes and the new global reckoning

4 days ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

The world is on the brink of war again. War crimes and massacres, genocides are coming to characterise our modern world. Humanity is in the deepest crisis it has ever seen. German critic Walter Benjamin, who died in 1940, once said: “There is no document of civilisation which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” These words predicted the scale of atrocity during the Nazi invasion of Europe. Benjamin believed that barbarism was being transmitted from one hand to another.
Water and sanitation department ramping up reforms, interventions to avoid water crisis

2 weeks ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

The department of water and sanitation (DWS) is intensifying infrastructure development, municipal support and institutional reform to avert a worsening national water crisis, it told parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday.
At least three officials must collude to create one ghost worker, says public service chairperson

2 weeks ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

Creating one ghost employee on the public payroll requires the collusion of at least three officials, the chairperson of parliament’s portfolio committee on public service and administration said on Monday. Jan de Villiers also said that the era of treating ghost workers as a clerical irregularity was over. “This is not merely a payroll anomaly.
MK party’s power problem: The fragility of proximity politics

2 weeks ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

Floyd Shivambu’s redeployment from the position of secretary general of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party to a seat in parliament is not simply a procedural shift. It is a symbolic moment that pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of a party still constructing its identity — and, more crucially, its power logic. What this moment makes increasingly difficult to ignore is that the party’s internal architecture does not yet rest on collective governance or principled leadership.
Reimagining SA-US relations in the aftermath of the Oval Office spectacle

2 weeks ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

The Oval Office encounter between South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and US President Donald Trump was no ordinary diplomatic engagement. It was a geopolitical theatre — a collision of clashing narratives, one anchored in misinformation, the other focused on sustaining economic opportunities. Yet beneath the theatrics lay deep tectonic shifts in the global order. If we reframe from spectacle to substance, this moment is not an anomaly, but a strong signal of change.
Ask Ash | Johannesburg’s housing crisis is like a movie on loop

2 weeks ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

I decided to rewatch the movie Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema. Besides being an excellent film directed by Ralph Ziman, I started examining the fictional protagonist Lucky Kunene. He is a symbol of struggle and represents individuals who were involved with the hijacking of buildings in Jozi’s suburb of Hillbrow during the 1990s. The character Lucky is not a real person, but the movie is based on real-life events, and it got me thinking. How much has changed since then? Well, basically nothing.
It’s time to talk about weaponising visas against Africans

2 weeks ago | mg.co.za | Des Erasmus

The anti-migration regulations in Europe and the US against Africans continue to affect the sociopolitical and economic development of Africa. Thousands of Africans who apply for visas continue to have their applications rejected. Moreover, most Africans are charged exorbitant non-refundable fees when applying for visas. Millions in foreign and local currencies are accumulated by European and US embassies in various African countries from visa applications annually.