Opinion
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