Opinion and Analysis

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

Seminar looks at finding employment when you’re young, black and poor, and just out of school

Equal Education and Ndifuna Ukwazi hosted a seminar at Lookout Hill, Khayelitsha, on 13 March titled ‘What Next: Opportunities for post school youth’. Part information, part inspiration, conversations were frank and informative.

Adam Armstrong

Opinion | 18 March 2014

World Cup: still a few hiccups away for Brazil

Brazil is facing major challenges. Violent public protests, an aggressive police crackdown, and infrastructure failures show a nation at times limping towards the 2014 FIFA World Cup 12 June kick-off in Sao Paulo.

Yazeed Kamaldien

Opinion | 17 March 2014

Rape ““ not just a township problem

During the Khayelitsha Commission, community witnesses, academics and police officers related stories of appalling violence, particularly sexual violence. The picture painted is in danger of creating the impression that Khayelitsha is bad, that something is wrong with the community, that it is unsalvageable.

Adam Armstrong

Opinion | 14 March 2014

Cry the beloved Congo

Mpho Mabhena writes about her distressing experience of the plight of women in the Congo.

Mpho Mabhena

Opinion | 12 March 2014

Are sugar daddies bad for your health?

“Sugar daddies destroy lives” say billboard adverts in Kwazulu-Natal in big bold black and red letters. The same message is echoed in radio adverts played across the country.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 11 March 2014

Marikana: a wake-up call

Four days after the bloodletting that has become known as the Marikana massacre, my Inside Labour column supported the call for a comprehensive and independent inquiry. And it noted, reflecting a widespread view within the labour movement: “The Lonmin tragedy is a wake-up call that South Africa will ignore at its peril.” Now, 19 months later and with the strike on the platinum belt having gone on for nearly two months, that warning seems even more appropriate. Below is an updated commentary that first appeared on the first anniversary of Marikana.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 10 March 2014

A tale of three policies

The ANC is increasingly accused of breaking the promises it has made to the South African public. What is less widely discussed is how their promises contradict one another.

Gilad Isaacs

Opinion | 4 March 2014

Who are the real illegal miners?

The rescue and subsequent arrest of zama-zama — (those prepared to) “have a go” — miners from an abandoned mine shaft near the East Rand city of Benoni made world headlines.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 3 March 2014

Uganda’s apartheid-style atrocity deserves sanctions

The leaders who spoke of an African renaissance and who brought about the African Union ignored gay rights. We are seeing the consequences of their omission today.

Leon Linz

Opinion | 3 March 2014