Opinion

Clarifying the COSATU confusion

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I tender this classic apology on behalf of many of my fellow journalists who have recently misled the public about the situation regarding the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) and the Cosatu federation.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 3 November 2014

Pregnant girls must be allowed in class

In my school when a girl falls pregnant, her parents are called in and the girl is kicked out of classes. She is only allowed to return after she gives birth.

Sisipho Xhaxha

Opinion | 30 October 2014

Ebola: what we need to do

On her return from Sierra Leone, epidemiologist Kathryn Stinson explains what must be done to manage the Ebola epidemic.

Kathryn Stinson

Opinion | 29 October 2014

Why I have resigned from the board of HCI

On 26 October, former Minister of Public Enterprises Barbara Hogan resigned from the board of Hosken Consolidated Investments, which owns etv. Here is her resignation letter.

Barbara Hogan

Opinion | 28 October 2014

Who is to blame for the PO rot

The strike bound South African Post Office (Sapo) has been badly damaged. And not by greedy workers and belligerent unions, but by mismanagement, corruption and a total lack of planning and foresight. The strike in its eleventh week is not a cause, but a symptom of the malaise.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 27 October 2014

Police: the facts behind the Commissioner’s “good story”

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Policing should ask police management some tough questions, writes Zackie Achmat in the second in a series of articles on policing.

Zackie Achmat

Opinion | 24 October 2014

Liebenberg’s argument is a straw man

The City is not opposed to social audits, but takes issue with the way the SJC carried out its audit, writes Counsellor Ernest Sonnenberg in response to Professor Sandra Liebenberg.

Ernest Sonnenberg

Opinion | 23 October 2014

Police: Parliament must ask tough questions

It’s annual report season in Parliament, and the new Portfolio Committee on Police is finding its feet. In the first in a series of articles, Zackie Achmat has some suggestions for the committee.

Zackie Achmat

Opinion | 23 October 2014

Social audits and the right to sanitation

Social audits are a valuable tool in implementing socio-economic rights, which is why the response by the City of Cape Town to the social audit of janitorial services in Khayelitsha is disturbing, writes Sandra Liebenberg.

Sandra Liebenberg

Opinion | 22 October 2014

Ebola: Journey to a quarantined village

In her latest article from the frontline of the Ebola epidemic, Kathryn Stinson ​looks for answers in a quarantined village in Sierra Leone.

Kathryn Stinson

Opinion | 21 October 2014

Marking “Black Wednesday”: how to ensure media freedom

Sunday October 19 marks the commemoration of ‘Black Wednesday’, the day in 1977 that the apartheid government banned a range of publications sympathetic to the Black Consciousness Movement, and arrested a group of journalists and editors.

Mark Weinberg

Opinion | 17 October 2014

Responding rationally to Ebola

Tightening border controls is not the way to prevent an outbreak of Ebola in South Africa, writes Nathan Geffen.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 16 October 2014

A deadly disease that demands huge investment

No doubt you’ve heard there’s a disease about that is infectious, difficult to treat and that has an extremely high death rate.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 15 October 2014

Dookoom: screaming about injustice

Daars a nuwe hond in die omgewing en hy raas soos ‘n baas! Kak gevaarlik and here to claim back the throne as the original Afrikaans gangsters, Dookoom have dropped a 4-track EP, A Gangster Called Big Times, and with the controversy caused by the debut single ‘Larney Jou Poes’, there are no sorry’s here.

Zethu Gqola

Opinion | 15 October 2014

Getting community service for lawyers right

A new law is intended to make it easier for poor people to get decent legal representation. But there is much to be done to make it work, writes Liat Davis.

Liat Davis

Opinion | 13 October 2014

How an Ebola clinic works

“So just think of the one who is about to die, trapped behind hundreds of walls sizzling with heat, while at the same time, there are all those people, on the telephone or in cafes …” - The Plague by Albert Camus.

Kathryn Stinson

Opinion | 13 October 2014