Don’t see Marikana miners as a faceless mob, inquiry told
By Sarah Evans This was the message delivered by evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson at the Farlam commission, who urged against “normalising” the tragic massacre. After two years of studying every possible detail, from autopsy reports and police operational plans to the macro-issues surrounding the union environment, the Marikana commission must not lose sight of the […]
Read this before you drink that next glass of water
Cape Town – Clean, fresh drinking water is something that many South Africans take for granted on a daily basis. But a number of looming threats may soon put our drinking water at risk. Here are four disturbing facts to consider. There isn’t much to spare Our water situation is much worse than many residents […]
Popular power, constitutional democracy and crisis: South Africa 1994-2014
By Raymond Suttner – The establishment of representative democracy in South Africa was an important victory for people who had been suppressed from the first days of white conquest and who had experienced the seizure of land of African and other indigenous people. With some still cherishing ideas of popular democracy as experienced in the […]
25 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Is the World about to Change Course on Capitalism’s Triumph over Communism?
Fazila Farouk – This year, 2014, heralds 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. It’s a momentous anniversary for Germans who are commemorating 25 years of reunification. But just as the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s democracy unleashed a flood of bittersweet reflection on the unfulfilled dreams of our […]
Students demand an end to unequal education
By Mary-Anne Gontsana – “In my school we have two main problems. The first one is a lack of water. Our taps are not working properly,” said Phila Biyongo, a grade 9 student at Simanyene High School in Strand, as she marched through Cape Town city centre yesterday afternoon in a protest organised by Equal […]
Ramaphosa calls for farm social compact
By Craig Dodds – Cape Town – Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for a moratorium on the evictions of farmworkers and promised to lead a process of negotiations towards a social compact in the sector that will bring a lasting peace and benefits to all. Speaking in Paarl near Cape Town on Saturday at […]
Eskom scrambles to hook up all of Majuba
BY SIKONATHI MANTSHANTSHA – ESKOM is working to reconnect all five available generating units at its Majuba power station to the grid by on Wednesday as it continues to ramp up output from the stricken coal-fired plant where a coal silo collapsed on Saturday, triggering load shedding. It has also asked engineers across its fleet […]
Real change needed to feed our poor
That some people lack access to adequate nutrition although there is sufficient food supply, speaks to the way that food, like other resources in our country, is mal-distributed, writes Bathabile Dlamini. Oxfam recently published a report entitled: “Hidden Hunger in South Africa”, which estimates that one in four South Africans experience hunger despite there being […]
Inequality mocks SA’s freedom
By: Sipho Kings – Oxfam this week released its report, Even It Up: Time to End Extreme Inequality. It starts with a case study from South Africa and compares a black woman born to a poor family in rural Limpopo to a white man born on the same day in a rich suburb of Cape […]
UNICEF Child Poverty Report Doesn’t Measure Poverty, But Inequality
By: Tim Worstoll – Unicef has released another installment in their annual look at child poverty in the developed nations. And they’ve managed to pile a grievous error on top of their usual misunderstandings to leave us with a report that we really shouldn’t take seriously: for it’s really not a serious report. There are, […]
