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?
Jackie Dugard -
On 08 October 2009, the Constitutional Court handed down its first water rights judgment. The case – Mazibuko & Others v City of Johannesburg & Others – was brought by five impoverished residents in Phiri, Soweto, on behalf of themselves, all similarly-situated residents and everyone in the public interest. The applicants challenged the City’s free basic water policy for being insufficient to meet the basic needs of large, poor, multi-dwelling households. They also...
Democracy Now -
Editor's Note: To view photographs of this historic meeting, please visit the website of the Maldives Presidency.
Maldives, the lowest-lying nation on earth, could be submerged by rising sea levels due to global warming. As a result, the country's President, Mohamed Nasheed and minister's from his government held an underwater cabinet meeting on Friday (17 October 2009) calling for concerted global action on climate change ahead of the Copenhagen conference. This special cabinet session...
Glenn Ashton -
The nomination of Elinor Ostrom for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is a timely recognition not only of her work but also of the mess that conventional economic theory has landed us in. It is probably safe to say that the awarding of the prize to Ostrom is as close to inciting revolutionary economic activity that the Royal Swedish Academy on Sciences, who decide the recipients, can get.
Not many people outside the rarefied world of academic or developmental economics were aware...
Che Guevara's Children, Dr Aleida Guevara and Camilo Guevara, are in South Africa to mobilise support for the release of the Cuban Five. Their visit to South Africa will culminate in a march to the American Embassy in Pretoria, to demand the release of The Cuban Five. The march will start at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Friday, 23 October 2009 at 09h30. The Guevara's will also be using their visit to the country to share their knowledge about the Cuban health model, one of the most...
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
"Give us massive price increases or the lights will once again go out," is the nub of the message from Eskom to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA). This simple and powerful posture by Eskom however hides the emergence of what might be called a "policy juggernaut." The term "policy juggernaut" has been coined by South African sociologist Karl von Holdt who defines it as a dense cluster of institutional, personal and economic interests, which...
"Has the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lived up to its founding goals or is it just a club for rich countries to dictate growth?" asks Al Jazeera, after the IMF met for its annual meeting in Turkey last week. Two years ago, The IMF was fighting for relevance but has come back with vigour, bolstered by a new role given to it by G20 leaders at the London Summit earlier this year -- to bail out countries affected by the global financial and economic crisis and to play a key role...
