Opinion
Facts and myths about the wineland value chain
The causes of the poor and the dispossessed continue to be manipulated by politicians and unscrupulous individuals bent on accumulating power, personal wealth or both. As a result, there is much cynical use and distortion of the evidence and of statements emanating from painful occurrences such as the deaths at Marikana or the conflict in the Boland winelands.
Andile Mngxitama: we need to draw a line in the sand
On the 15th of March Jared Sacks, a journalist and activist, published an article in the Mail & Guardian asking whether or not Steve Biko, the Steve Biko of 1977, would have supported Mamphele Ramphele’s recent political initiative. Some people, including people who had been close to Biko, really liked the piece. Others, including the well-known public commentator Andile Mngxitama, didn’t like it at all.
In crisis times, symbiosis can trump the adversarial
South Africa’s annual wage bargaining — some say, strike — season has begun. In a series of conferences this week, the various sides got together to decide on their strategies and to plan the tactics they intend to follow as the hard talking gets underway.
Apartheid: South Africa's history, Palestine's reality?
This is an edited version of remarks made by Doron Isaacs at an event hosted by the UCT Palestine Solidarity Forum for Israel Apartheid Week 2013. The other panelists, who spoke prior to Isaacs, were Professor Andrew Nash and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
Women's day ideals: still a long way to go
It was International Women’s Day (IWD) on Friday. And it seemed an appropriate time for a reminder about the labour movement origins of the day and of its noble aims and egalitarian promise. This because several recent studies reveal that the female half of humanity is once again bearing the brunt of the global economic crisis. After all, when it began in 1910, IWD was rich with the promise of equality.
South Africa under construction: Give public works a chance
The Expanded Public Works Programme aims to create millions of short-term jobs every year while also providing the county with much needed infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and schools in areas that need it.
DA electoral reforms ignore the main problem: party funding
Of all the adjectives used to describe South African politics, boring cannot be one of them. Completely out of the blue the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Tuesday submitted an Electoral Reform Bill (Bill) to Parliament, which aims “to provide for the demarcation of … constituencies” in order to deal with the “alienation by voters from the political system”.
The grant that changed my life
South Africa's social grant system is sometimes criticised as financially unsustainable and fueling dependency, but people such as Maureen Philander from Delft provide an example of how social assistance can transform lives. She shares her story with us.
Mud Schools: a decade of lying to children
Angie Motshekga is in an ebullient mood. On Tuesday at Parliament she told the media that South African education is on an upward trajectory, characterized by focus, consistency and clarity. Fine. Nothing wrong with a bit of positive thinking.
Constitutionally speaking about the 2014 election
The 2014 election campaign has clearly begun and promises to be long and almost certainly very bitter. Labour relations — and relations with labour — are likely to be in the forefront, with Cosatu, as a member of the governing tripartite allliance, in the thick of it.