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?
Glenn Ashton -
Structural poverty, exacerbated by falling employment, has dogged South Africa since 1994. Subsequently unemployment has officially increased from around one fifth of the active workforce, to a quarter today. The unofficial “expanded” and probably more realistic level of unemployment is closer to 40%. This issue, more than any other, threatens the fundamental stability of our nation.
In 1995 the philosopher Jeremy Rifkin published a book called the “The End of...
Alex Kane -
If you’ve been trying to closely watch recent events in Egypt, your head may be spinning. Turmoil continues to rock the country in the aftermath of the July 3 military coup that overthrew former President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood movement who is now being held incommunicado by Egypt’s ruling generals. From the killing of Islamist prisoners to the ambush on Egyptian police officers in the Sinai region, events continue to move at an insanely fast pace in the...
Dale T. McKinley -
Justifiably, lots of media and public attention has been given over lately to the continued fallout from the massively corrupt first arms deal. Like a long-term unwanted house guest who simply won’t go away, the first arms deal is still with us almost twenty years after it was first conceived. In immediate terms this is largely due to the various sagas around the Zuma-appointed Seriti Commission of Inquiry which are seemingly once again set to confirm the short-term triumph of personal...
Jim Nichol -
The story of the run-up to the Marikana massacre is one of collusion between the state, the platinum mining company Lonmin and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Each had the same vested interest in breaking the unofficial strike at Marikana. Lonmin came up with a strategy to achieve it.
Lonmin wrote to the minister of mines, Susan Shabangu, “The state should bring to bear on this crucial sector of the economy using resources at its disposal to resolutely bring the...
Following Zwelinzima Vavi’s suspension from Cosatu, Patrick Bond, Director of the Centre For Civil Society at the University of KZN argues that Vavi’s predicament is also linked to an ideological conflict in the trade union federation, which could potentially lead to the establishment of a workers' party. On the one side, he argues, “We have a very interesting situation where a more socialist-oriented bloc within the trade union, especially NUMSA, have worked closely with...
“People who I thought were members of a revolutionary camp celebrated what was clearly a military coup,” argues political analyst, Max Blumenthal. “A military coup leads to disappearances and bloodshed and crushes democracy. So why were these people celebrating this? Did they really want a revolution? Or did they just want power for themselves?” According to Blumenthal, one-third of cabinet members in Egypt’s new administration “are former members of the...
