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
On the edge of the university hamlet of Grahamstown, there’s a municipal dump where people discard trash. It’s far enough out of town to not smell the stench – or for most locals not to be reminded of the haunting plight of the poor who subsist off the waste.
Mandy de Waal
Feature | 20 November 2013
Parents every year complain about the demands grade 12 learners have for their end of the year matric dances.
Pharie Sefali
News | 13 November 2013
Christmas is clearly coming. The store decorations are in place and chocolate Santas jostle on the shelves with strings of lights on ornamental trees while bins of festive season toffees and biscuit specials vie to keep the tills ringing.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 12 November 2013
Trade unions the world over are embattled and apparently finding difficulty adapting to the changed circumstances of this century. To varying degrees they react to challenges in the manner of decades past, without apparently realising the potential they have to influence the way forward in what is a changed world.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 6 November 2013
“South Africa has rather fallen off the radar,” the BBC journalist noted. This was similar to comments voiced by former anti-apartheid activists and by several one-time strugglista exiles, mainly in London, who never returned home to settle. Because, in the mainstream media of Europe, there is little mention of South Africa: and, after six weeks abroad, it was, for me, a useful reminder of how minor is our role in global political and economic affairs.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 28 October 2013
Thousands of people in South Africa have drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Many of them will die. Death from TB can be slow and horrible. Many of those who do survive will struggle with severe side effects and may need daily pills and injections. Some, like 23-year old Phumeza who described her experience of TB treatment at a Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) press conference last week, will live, but lose their hearing.
Marcus Low
Opinion | 24 October 2013
Rene Mayinga from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is on strike. He claims his employer, Street Parking Solution (SPS), which won a tender in July 2008 from the City of Cape Town to collect parking fees in the CBD, has not been paying him since 2009.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 21 October 2013
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said last week that if South Africa wants to achieve higher growth and cut unemployment “a social bargain” is needed that would pull together trade unions, business and the government to implement the NDP (National Development Plan). It also suggests that trade unions moderate wage demands and that the State implement its massive infrastructure spending plans. The IMF flagged "escalating labour tensions" as a "key domestic risk".
Jack Lewis
Opinion | 10 October 2013
For the first time since its inception in 2006, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) conference was held on the African continent during the first week of October. This event brought together a wide variety of stakeholders, from banking groups to mining giants, as well as consultancy and investment firms from around the globe.
Delphine Pedeboy
Opinion | 9 October 2013
On September 30, the government announced the second increase this year in disability grants, old age pensions, care dependency grants and war veterans' pensions. These increases will come in addition to the child support grant and grant-in-aid increases, which were already budgeted for in March. Although the increase is only R10, it will equate to a R41 million increase in government spending per month.
Gabrielle Kelly
Opinion | 7 October 2013
At the centre of South Africa’s economic inequality and resulting poverty is a lack of access to economic opportunity. Small and medium enterprises have a pivotal role to play in accelerating economic growth for poor and working class communities.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
Opinion | 1 October 2013
The Neil Aggett Memorial lecture was delivered by Jay Naidoo at Kingswood College, Grahamstown on 13 September 2013.
Jay Naidoo
Opinion | 17 September 2013
“It’s the same, the whole world over, it’s the poor what gets the blame.” So starts the chorus of a well-known British music hall song. Today it could be a two-line anthem for the international labour movement as the economic crisis continues to bite and disillusionment with the existing political order grows.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 16 September 2013
The debacle around Dali Mpofu's fees at the Farlam Commission is an important moment.
Jack Lewis
Opinion | 11 September 2013
AngloGold Ashanti, one of South Africa’s biggest mining multinationals, is currently concerned about their investment of over US$255 million in Colombia. Chris Lodder, president of explorations of AngloGold Ashanti for the Americas, has described Colombia as a ‘diamond in the rough’.
Camila Osorio
News | 11 September 2013