Opinion

A year of compulsory community service for new teachers?

On April Fool’s day, GroundUp published a story which claimed that government had made it compulsory for teacher graduates to provide their services in non-model C government schools for one year.

Joshua Maserow

Opinion | 15 April 2014

Still seeking fairness on the farms

Farm employer organisation AgriSA last week met with trade union representatives in an effort to strike a deal to allow unionisation on farms — and especially in the winelands of the Western Cape. “Most farmers still will not allow union representatives onto their properties,” says Federation of Unions (Fedusa) general secretary Dennis George.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 14 April 2014

Kramer has it wrong says City

Paul Boughey, chief of staff to the executive mayor of Cape Town, takes issue with Dustin Kramer's article on GroundUp.

Paul Boughey

Opinion | 9 April 2014

Mobile phone rates and putting people before profits

You’ve probably heard the news that MTN and Vodacom have gone to court to stop new regulations. The court ruled that the regulations should go head. What does this mean for the people’s right to communicate?

John Haffner

Opinion | 8 April 2014

Strike focus must be on jobs, not wages

A crunch point has this week been reached in the platinum sector. Stockpiles are all but exhausted and striking miners are starving. In normal circumstances this would be the time when compromise is reached, a matter of who blinks first.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 8 April 2014

Where do political parties stand on health issues?

The People’s Health Manifesto is an initiative of the Treatment Action Campaign. With elections upon us, the TAC wanted to know what political parties proposed to do for healthcare. They put 11 questions to them. This is what they discovered.

Brent Meersman

Opinion | 7 April 2014

EFF is not a left alternative

This was written in September 2011 when Julius Malema was still riding high in the ANCYL. However, the arguments made are, I think vindicated by the subsequent emergence of the EFF. Anyone who thinks the EFF represents a Left alternative is badly — and dangerously — mistaken. I put it out again now because it appears that there are still some otherwise sensible comrades who are considering a vote for the EFF. WASP, for all its faults, is at least a Left bet.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 7 April 2014

If you’re well-off this is what you can do to reduce poverty

The Five Plus Project was launched on 17 March this year. Its goal is to get as many well-off South Africans as possible to give at least 5% of their income to organisations and initiatives helping to reduce poverty in South Africa or alleviate its effects.

Hugh Corder and Anton Fagan

Opinion | 3 April 2014

Mbeki nostalgia

As we head into elections, the ANC boasts about successes in the fight against AIDS and South Africa’s large antiretroviral treatment programme.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 3 April 2014

‘Western Cape Story’ must be told with facts

Since 2012, Mayor Patricia De Lille and others in the City of Cape Town have repeatedly referred to the proportion of the City’s budget allocated to ‘pro-poor spending’.

Dustin Kramer

Opinion | 2 April 2014

Don’t vote for these messiahs

We have the vote but the political parties do not represent the aspirations of the people, writes Ayanda Kota, founder of the Unemployed People’s Movement.

Ayanda Kota

Opinion | 2 April 2014

Where worker deaths remain a secret

In 1997 15 workers at the Sasol Secunda plant were burned to death in what was described at the time as a “catastrophic fire”. What caused the blaze that killed them, how did they die and could they have been saved? These were questions the next of kin and their union wanted to know.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 31 March 2014

Should you spoil your ballot?

The campaign now underway to encourage a protest against government by spoiling ballots has been left far too late, especially if the object is to build a coherent and mass, grassroots campaign to promote some kind of alternative.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 27 March 2014

Mediation is an Honourable Profession

In an unequal society where conflict between employers and employees is inevitable, the role of mediators who help to minimise the damage to protagonists and to society at large, is an honourable one. Such is the role of the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

Terry Bell

Opinion | 24 March 2014

Seminar looks at finding employment when you’re young, black and poor, and just out of school

Equal Education and Ndifuna Ukwazi hosted a seminar at Lookout Hill, Khayelitsha, on 13 March titled ‘What Next: Opportunities for post school youth’. Part information, part inspiration, conversations were frank and informative.

Adam Armstrong

Opinion | 18 March 2014

World Cup: still a few hiccups away for Brazil

Brazil is facing major challenges. Violent public protests, an aggressive police crackdown, and infrastructure failures show a nation at times limping towards the 2014 FIFA World Cup 12 June kick-off in Sao Paulo.

Yazeed Kamaldien

Opinion | 17 March 2014