Opinion and Analysis

Celebrate Freedom Day? No thanks, I’d rather drink

While celebrations took place all over the country this week, some young people in Cape Town’s townships chose to spend Freedom Day another way.

Pharie Sefali

Opinion | 30 April 2014

“˜Nothing About Us, Without Us!’ - keeping the Constitution alive

The stories told by the mothers of three children with disabilities at a series of workshops at the Consitutional Court underline the contrast between constitutional rights and the grim reality.

Muhammad Zakaria Suleman and Tim Fish Hodgson

Opinion | 29 April 2014

Deploying the army to the Cape Flats won’t work

The call to deploy the army was heard in response to recent gang violence in Manenberg. But that’s not the solution, argues Adam Armstrong.

Adam Armstrong

Opinion | 29 April 2014

Labour’s blind loyalty a democratic failure

The ongoing and increasingly bitter row within Cosatu boils down, basically, to a constitutional clash.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 29 April 2014

Dalindyebo, the DA’s kingmaker

In the Eastern Cape, the Democratic Alliance is in bed with a despot convicted of homicide, attempted murder, kidnapping, arson and a range of other heinous crimes. Mandy de Waal asks whether the opposition is wise to hug a tyrant close to its breast, in the hope of defeating the ANC.

Mandy de Waal

Analysis | 22 April 2014

Khayelitsha cops: “We are the whipping boys”

While the Marikana hearings drift through the doldrums in Rustenberg, at Khayelitsha’s Lookout Hill another commission into police failings is cautiously gathering momentum. The O’Regan-Pikoli Commission of Inquiry is a timely and consolatory reminder of the judicial efficiency South Africa is capable of.

Richard Conyngham

Opinion | 22 April 2014

COSATU schisms make for a rocky road

We are in the midst of all the usual fanfare, the pledges, promises, rows and contradictions that accompany any run-up to a major election. But the scheduled national poll on 7 May seems to be beset by more bickering, bitterness and fragmentation than normal — and this is a clear portent for the future.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 22 April 2014

What’s that you say … human-whats?

Nearly two decades into our democracy, for most people living in South Africa our Constitution might as well be written in Latin, because it is more than likely that they have never read it.

Tim Fish Hodgson and Tawana Nharingo

Opinion | 17 April 2014

Where to for Cape Town Pride?

At a meeting on 12 April convened by Ikasi Pride, members of a divided gay and lesbian community discussed the future of gay pride in the city, its steady depoliticisation, its lack of community outreach and its image problem.

Brent Meersman

Opinion | 15 April 2014