Opinion and Analysis
Controlling quackery: will new regulations help?
Untested nonsense medicines and adverts to buy them are prolific. But after years of chaos in the alternative medicine market, it seems the Department of Health (DOH) is intent on fixing the mess.
Kevin Charleston
Opinion | 26 November 2013
Where politics gets really smelly
Politics stinks. These days in South Africa, this is a fairly common view. But, in the North West province in recent months, the expression has had a very real resonance.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 26 November 2013
“How do you expect 550 boys to share six toilets?”
The bell rings for break time, triggering a mad rush for the toilet. Many learners won’t make it in time. After all, “how do you expect 550 boys to share six toilets … when there is only one break?”
Brad Brockman
Opinion | 26 November 2013
Party politics dominates Cosatu crisis
Fudging and delay. That was what emerged from last week’s eagerly awaited Cosatu press conference. As a result, the questions about the future of suspended general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and the prospect of a Special National Congress (SNC) remained unanswered.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 25 November 2013
Toward a more realistic NDP - start with education and jobs
It is two years since the first authoring of the National Development Plan (NDP), and over a year since the delivery of the revised plan by the National Planning Commission (NPC). To speed up progress, we must stop squabbling over which parts of it to implement and focus initially on education and labour-intensive industries.
Ayal Belling
Opinion | 21 November 2013
How to break the backlog in primary education
Jack Lewis explains how we can quickly make radical improvements to primary school education.
Jack Lewis.
Opinion | 18 November 2013
Time for serious action on road carnage
The road crash massacre on the Moloto Road in Mpumalanga last week provides an horrific portent for the annual festive season slaughter on the highways and byways of South Africa. And the manner in which the deaths of 29 people were reported, being consigned, for the most part, to the inside pages of newspapers, reveals just how accepting the country has become of such carnage.
Terry Bell.
Opinion | 18 November 2013
Where’s Wally? Liberals in the DA
Leaders, former leaders and the main cheerleaders of the Democratic Alliance have publicly debated these last weeks about whether or not the party has betrayed its liberal tradition with its stance on black economic empowerment.
Nathan Geffen
Opinion | 18 November 2013
Occult crime unit is offensive to common sense and morality
Decades after its formation, the Occult-Related Crime Unit (ORCU, founded by Kobus “Donker” Jonker in 1992) continues to waste public resources, misdirect police attention, and stigmatise young people who are by and large more misunderstood than malignant.
Jacques Rousseau
Opinion | 13 November 2013