Opinion and Analysis

After the SONA: questions for President Zuma

President Zuma's State of the Nation Address was thin on detail. Here are a list of questions that we suggest Members of Parliament could ask, so that people living in South Africa will be better informed.

GroundUp Staff

Analysis | 13 February 2015

Why mining industry leaders should drive to Woodstock this week

The annual Investing in African Mining Indaba is once again under way at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. It is a rather depressed affair this year, with an unresolved regulatory regime, looming labour disputes and an energy crisis that makes investing in South Africa look a lot less interesting than in other countries in Africa.

Melissa Fourie

Opinion | 12 February 2015

Curro schools and segregation: back to the future

Today, Equal Education is protesting outside the Public Investment Corporation because it is an investor in the Curro private school chain. DORON ISAACS, Equal Education's Deputy General Secretary, explains his organisation's concerns with Curro.

Doron Isaacs

Opinion | 10 February 2015

State ownership does not equal socialism

The Q’uran and the Prophet Mohammed cannot be held responsible for the Jihadi atrocities of Boko Haram or the Islamic State groups any more than can the Christian Gospels and Jesus be held responsible for apartheid or the Ku Klux Klan. To claim otherwise is simply illogical.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 2 February 2015

Educational technology has huge potential: a response to Nikki Stein

Last week Nikki Stein from SECTION27 expressed reservations about the piloting of paperless classrooms at seven township schools in Gauteng. MEC for Education in the province, Panyaza Lesufi, responds here.

Panyaza Lesufi

Opinion | 27 January 2015

Where the wealthiest ‘wine, dine, bribe and bully’

The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) extravaganza got underway last week as 700 private jets whizzed into the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. This is a gathering where the heads of immensely rich corporations wine, dine, bribe and bully various power brokers and wannabe tycoons to do their bidding and to adopt policies that suit the corporate world.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 26 January 2015

City to improve toilet cleaning facility

This is a response by Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg, Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services, to GroundUp's article "Is this the Dirtiest Job in Cape Town?" published on 21 January.

Ernest Sonnenberg

Opinion | 23 January 2015

Constitutional rights apply to sex workers too

A year ago, some boys in my street came home late at night with a sex worker. They refused to pay her.

Abigail McDougall

Opinion | 22 January 2015

Classrooms of the future?

The air is thick with the excitement of the first week of school. Stories of bright-eyed learners whose parents are dropping them off for the start of their school careers, donning their too-big uniforms and carrying backpacks almost the size of the learners themselves, are all over newspapers, radio stations, televisions and social media.

Nikki Stein

Opinion | 21 January 2015

What Africa’s premier soccer tournament means to Equatorial Guinea

The brutal kleptocracy of Equatorial Guinea hopes to gain a measure of international acceptance by hosting the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) soccer spectacle that kicked off this weekend, writes Terry Bell. The oil and gas wealth generated by this “Kuwait of Africa” provides the economic wherewithal for the ruling elite to buy favours while the bulk of the population wallows in repressive poverty. Bell was the only foreign journalist to cover the independence of Equatorial Guinea more than 46 years ago.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 19 January 2015

Why Cape Town should not name a street after FW De Klerk

Once again, there is a furore about plans to name a major Cape Town street after former apartheid president FW de Klerk. As well there should be, although there is considerable support for the proposal.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 19 January 2015

Charlie Hebdo: Let’s not fall into the politically correct trap

Charlie Hebdo journalist Laurent Leger is no stranger to South African newspaper readers. Over the last ten years or so, as a freelancer, Laurent has written several reports for South African newspapers on the French connection in the arms deal, and also on failed attempts to find the killers of ANC Paris representative Dulcie September.

Alide Dasnois

Opinion | 13 January 2015

Cartoons and the Prophet Muhammad

The question of whether Prophet Muhammad can be depicted in Islam is something that perhaps most Muslims have failed to explain. With every cartoon or drawing, most people wonder why Muslims are in such an uproar – and admittedly, in some cases in a manner that is frankly unbefitting of the Prophet himself.

A’Eysha Kassiem

Opinion | 13 January 2015

Let’s not focus only on the matric results

A focus on the matric results obscures problems lower down in the education system, writes Wim Louw.

Wim Louw

Opinion | 7 January 2015

ANC: from a heroic tradition to sleaze and crime

The ANC is one of the few political organisations in the world that has existed for over 100 years. It remains powerful electorally and although it received less votes than before in last year's national general election, it could well still be returned as the ruling party for the foreseeable future.

Raymond Suttner

Opinion | 6 January 2015

We need a definition of a living wage

Instead of focusing on percentage increases, wage negotiations should be based on a clear definition of a living wage, write Trenton Elsley and George Mthethwa.

Trenton Elsley and George Mthethwa

Opinion | 6 January 2015