Opinion
DA’s shadow bill misses the key point
On Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance's (DA) new shadow minister of police, Zakhele Mbhele, will brief parliament's police committee on the DA's Bill to replace the National Key Points Act.
Murray Hunter
Opinion | 3 November 2015
Lessons from the student protests of the 1980s
Activist Mandy Sanger, who was part of student-led opposition to apartheid through the Committee of 81 in Cape Town, delivered the annual Ashley Kriel memorial lecture sponsored by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and the University of the Western Cape last night. Here is a brief extract from her speech.
Mandy Sanger
Opinion | 23 October 2015
Black advocates tell court they object to ‘racist sting’
This morning, in the silicosis class action, black advocates requested the opportunity to address the court regarding remarks made by a member of one of the legal teams. Approximately 150 black advocates, mostly women, were at court in solidarity with the statement. According to John Stephens, a lawyer with SECTION27, leaders of each legal team "undertook to address the entrenched patterns of racial exclusion in the profession."
Advocates for transformation
Opinion | 23 October 2015
Lawyers in black and white: Spoor vs Boqwana
The recent furore over the lawyers in the huge silicosis court case focused on race, but the real issue is how lawyers advance the cause of justice, argue Pasika Nontshiza and John Clarke.
Pasika Nontshiza and John GI Clarke
Opinion | 23 October 2015
Statement in solidarity with South African student protesters
Over 800 students and student groups from 200 international institutions have signed a statement of support for the #FeesMustFall protesters.
Over 800 signatories
Opinion | 23 October 2015
The Piketty puzzle: reproducing inequality in everyday life
While the government earnestly pledges its commitment to reversing inequality, it reproduces inequality in the normal behaviour it expects for itself and the broader elite of South Africa’s political-economy. Two recent and very public events illustrate these opposing positions.
Jeff Rudin
Opinion | 13 October 2015
Will gold miners get justice?
In King Leopold’s Ghost, the historian Adam Hochschild uncovers the horrors committed in the Belgian Congo in the years before and after 1900. It is a history of slavery, murder and mutilation – anyone who’s seen the pictures of piles of cut-off hands cannot but be horrified by it.
Marcus Low
Opinion | 9 October 2015
Time to reposition one of Africa’s great debates: gay rights
Over the past few years, we have seen an explosion of arguments for and against gay rights in Africa. Those in favour of gay rights point out that they can help to protect sexual minorities by making discrimination illegal, in the process making societies more equitable. Those opposed to gay rights allege that homosexuality only arrived with Europeans, that gay rights are a threat to the African nation, and a threat to the heterosexual family.
Andrew Tucker
Opinion | 6 October 2015
Piketty’s radical vision for education
During Thomas Piketty’s Nelson Mandela lecture a friend tweeted that, despite the standing ovation, many would choose what to remember. They would parrot his call for investment in education because that was unthreatening. Forget land redistribution, a wealth tax and the national minimum wage, just get the kids in school!
Doron Isaacs
Opinion | 6 October 2015