Peter Swanepoel
Peter Swanepoel is a historian and writer affiliated with the University of Johannesburg’s History Department, where he works under the supervision of Professor Thembisa Waetjen. His research focuses on the politics and institutional cultures of South African cycling under apartheid. He is the co-author of The Daisy Spy Ring: How South African Intelligence Agents Infiltrated and Disrupted the SA Communist Party (Naledi, 2025) and is currently completing doctoral research with funding from the National Research Foundation. He also writes on politics, history, and society, with an emphasis on institutional analysis, historical context, and moral clarity.
Articles By This Author
Elon Musk and the institutional limits of liberal democracy
Public debate about Elon Musk rarely escapes caricature. He is alternately framed as a near-messianic innovator dragging a stagnant civilisation forward, or as an erratic
Venezuela: The Seduction of Outcome-Based Morality
Why moral clarity does not justify discretionary power. There is little difficulty in condemning the regime that presided over Venezuela’s collapse. Over more than two
Sandra Laing and the Zombie of Race Classification
How post-apartheid South Africa inherited the logic it claims to reject The government rightly condemns apartheid’s racial classification as primitive, even laughable, while continuing to
The Trump-Mamdani meeting: the problem isn’t hypocrisy, but devaluation
When the photographs emerged of Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani meeting in the Oval Office — smiling, shaking hands, exchanging compliments — I spent days
The Iran factor: what’s really holding Gaza’s ceasefire together
The peace deal holding Gaza together right now works for a reason most people don’t understand: Arab states fear Iran more than they care about
The familiar choices of a failing democracy: Cuomo vs Mamdani
As New York approaches its 2025 mayoral election, two very different candidates reveal the same underlying problem – a political system that keeps producing inadequate
Is war always a failure of humanity?
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb says yes. History says no. Stubb’s declaration in his recent UN speech – “War is always a failure of humanity” –