Opinion and Analysis

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