Often, we speak about the “legacy of Apartheid” in loose terms without interrogating what it really means for apartheid to persist in real ways in our modern contemporary society. We tend to focus on Apartheid in its most vivid form of oppression, and celebrate the events of 1994’s transition to democracy as an absolute victory. But have we ever stopped to discuss Apartheid in its intricacy; its more nuanced and subliminal form that would suggest that the victory we venerate as absolute, wasn’t the all-out win for South Africans that it painted to be? 

In this episode, we sit down with renowned academic and thought leader, Dr Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh to discuss an important pillar of South Africa’s democratic state: freedom. He walks us through the idea of freedom we maintain to this day, versus the detailed reality of what it actually is, as outlined in his most recent book “The New Apartheid” and why the deliberate ommission of nuance in its real definition is detrimental to our pursuit of it. This is supported by potential reasons for why we maintain this idea of freedom, as well as how we ought to look at it if we are to build an absolute democracy. 

Special Note: We apologise for the inconsistency in sound quality during this episode, as well as the technical difficulties (40:00) we ran into while recording. 

Buy The New Apartheid by Dr Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh here: https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9780624088547 

Hosts: Thami Pooe- https://www.linkedin.com/in/thami-pooe/ Guest: Dr Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh- https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-sizwe-mpofu-walsh-128a0563/ 

Crew: 
Executive Producer: Thami Pooe. 
Marketing & Operations: Mokoena Moloto. 
Production Coordinator: Thabo S. Masilela. 
Videography: Altru Visuals. 
Video Editing: Yanga Mazwai (Altru Visuals). 
Audio-Mixing: Thato Motsusi. 

Special Thanks To: University of Johannesburg Library.