The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Visit the archives.
Charlotte Laws -
I felt like Will Smith in "Enemy of the State."
I was being hunted, harassed and stalked by criminals with technological expertise. I had been thrust into an unexpected war. I felt exposed, vulnerable and alone on the front line. I had awoken a hideous network of villains and saboteurs, who were in pursuit of me, hoping to ruin my life. I had received creepy emails, backlash on Twitter and three death threats. My computer had been bombarded with viruses, and a technician had...
Once upon a time, not so long ago, world leaders gathered to make an agreement to fight climate change. They met in Japan and agreed to the famous Kyoto Protocol. A principal feature of the Protocol turned out to be carbon trading: a magical solution to curb CO2 emissions. It was presented as a flexible market mechanism able to tackle climate change in a cost effective way. The magical elements were carbon credits, who reached the status of superheroes once their full potential was...
Frank Meintjies -
The recent resignation by NUMSA president Cedric Gina is another rip in the fabric of the trade union federation, COSATU. Given that a breakup of COSATU will weaken labour’s voice as a counterpoint to the strength of capital and the state, this development again raises the question as to what is to be done to save the situation.
By now, all those who follow current affairs are familiar with the features of the split. The broad pattern harks back to COSATU’s formation.
The...
Vanessa Burger -
It’s always easy to bully the weak. Or blame the victim. Or focus on superficial details instead of addressing the big picture. Most medication treats the symptoms but rarely the cause of an illness.
Unsurprisingly, this also applies to the recent anti-prostitution protests organised by the Bulwer Community Safety Forum in Glenwood, Durban. Disappointingly however, many of the organisers and participants of this protest should know better.
When symptoms of an illness persist after...
Relations between the U.S. and Iran reached a historic level after a deal was signed on Sunday. The deal calls for Iran to halt most of its uranium enrichment efforts, eliminate its stockpiles of uranium, open its facilities to daily monitoring by international inspectors, and significantly slow the construction of the Arak reactor. Robert Kelley, a nuclear engineer who has worked in the U.S. nuclear complex for more than 30 years and assisted the IAEA as the director in the Iraq Action Team...
Mandisi Majavu -
The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) official position on the Employment Equity Amendment Bill reveals, among other things, the irrelevance and the inadequacy of classic liberalism in addressing racial justice in post-apartheid South Africa. The Party Leader, Helen Zille, characterises the bill as “Verwoerdian social engineering”. Zille’s reasoning is that “there is nothing progressive about coercion that enforces racial quotas…”
Zille’s...
