South Africa’s New Food and Nutrition Policy Fails to Address Constitutional Right to Food
By Busiso Moyo — South Africa’s New Food and Nutrition Policy Fails to Address Constitutional Right to Food :: SACSIS.org.za Everyone seems to have an interest in food policy these days, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with its ‘Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa’, to the G8 with its ‘New Alliance for […]
Living on a beggar’s budget
By Thuletho Zwane — Unemployed people are slipping through the cracks because most of the country’s money is locked up in the financial sector. While Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene delivered his budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon, Chenai Mpereki (33) and her four-year-old boy were at their usual spot in one of Johannesburg’s most affluent […]
Rethinking the Role of Mining in South Africa: Nothing Changes Until Something Big Happens
By Saliem Fakir — Last week the Mining Indaba came and went just like it does every year. Some 7,000 people attended. On its margins, outside of the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), a different kind of mining indaba, a people’s indaba, took place in close by Woodstock. This was the 5th Alternative Mining Indaba […]
Poverty report strengthens COSATU’s case for national minimum wage and comprehensive social security
By Zwelinzima Vavi — Opinion: The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ argument for a national minimum wage, comprehensive social security, and a basic income grant was greatly strengthened by the report released by Statistics SA on 3 February 2015, which exposed the shocking extent and continued persistence of extreme levels of poverty, writes the organisation’s General […]
Blow by blow: President Jacob Zuma’s 2015 State of the Nation Address
By Africa Check — South African President Jacob Zuma’s 2015 State of the Nation Address was marred by ugly confrontations inside and outside Parliament, the expulsion of some opposition MPs, a walkout by others and the strange discovery of an apparent cellphone jamming device. Read full story here
How many more hits can the House take before it crumbles?
By Mmusi Maimane The events of 12 February 2015 will remain an indelible blot in the history books that will be written about South Africa’s young democracy. What happened inside the Parliamentary Precinct, as well as on the streets of Cape Town make for a perfect storm, painting the ANC as a government and party […]
‘Freedom is dignity’
By Andile Ndlovu Palestinian activist Leila Khaled’s visit to Soweto yesterday was nearly overshadowed by anti-Economic Freedom Fighters rhetoric. Clearly still smarting from the EFF’s antics in parliament last week, outspoken Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans and Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association chairman Kebby Maphatsoe declared war on Julius Malema’s party, saying […]
‘Egos at play with Zuma, Malema’
By LEBOGANG SEALE Johannesburg – The unsavoury events in Parliament in recent times are a manifestation of the personalisation of politics arising from the grudges and egos between EFF leader Julius Malema and President Jacob Zuma, political analysts say. In what became all-time-low and nasty scenes in the democratic Parliament on Thursday, EFF MPs were […]
Cosatu criticises EFF
Cosatu criticised the actions of the opposition EFF during the opening of parliament in Cape Town on Thursday. “No-one I know have disrupted any president… least of all in a democracy such as ours,” said Congress of SA Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. “To disrupt… was absolutely wrong.” He also criticised the decision to […]
Democracy the victim of Parliament chaos – analysts
Cape Town – South Africa’s hard-won democracy, symbolised by the late liberation hero Nelson Mandela, was the main victim of the chaos in Parliament during President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address, commentators said on Friday. Radical lawmakers who interrupted Zuma to demand he “pay back the money” spent on upgrades to his private […]
