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?
On the 2nd & 3rd of September 2009, the Constitutional Court of South Africa heard the final appeal in a case brought by five Soweto residents challenging prepaid water meters and insufficient free basic water. The Bill of Rights of the South African Constitution guarantees the right of access to sufficient water. However, poor communities in Johannesburg's townships do not have sufficient water and do not receive the same water service as the richer suburbs. This six year legal...
Meizhu Lui talks at a seminar (in 2006, but still extremely relevant today) about issues covered in a book she co-authored with four others, The Colour of Wealth, which examines the racial wealth divide in contemporary America. Lui is currently director of the "Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative" at the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. In the presentation featured in this post, Lui traces the historical antecedents of the racial...
Glenn Ashton -
South Africa has one of the highest rates of drug abuse in the world. The most commonly abused drugs are alcohol and dagga (cannabis). The abuse of chemical stimulants such as tik (methamphetamine) has recently soared. Other synthesised drugs like cocaine, heroin and mandrax remain deeply problematic, both to users and society.
The drug scourge is an historical international problem linked to globally connected and well resourced criminal enterprises. Russian, Italian, Columbian, Chinese,...
Democracy Now -
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Sharif Abdel Kouddous talk to Steven Clemons about the recent elections in Japan where voters have ousted the right-leaning Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, after fifty-five years of nearly uninterrupted governance. In elections on Sunday, the populist Democratic Party of Japan captured a record 308 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament. Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama, who is expected to become Japan’s new prime minister, has...
Saliem Fakir -
Eskom released its 2008/2009 financial results last week showing a record loss of R9.7bn – the highest in its history. About R7bn more was spent on coal than the previous year, raising questions about Eskom’s dependence on coal as a source of power.
Eskom is forced to chart stormy waters like a beleaguered ship. Its ‘New Build’ programme won’t come cheap. It already has a funding gap of R80bn for new coal-fired power stations. The only way to resolve this is to...
26 August 2009, marked 60 days of the Honduran resistance to the military coup, reports The Real News Network (TRNN). The date marked 60 days since the cancellation of the non-binding national survey on rewriting the constitution and the removal of President Manuel Zelaya. While the coup government continues to receive military and economic support from the government in the US and Canada, not a single international government has officially recognized the coup regime. Nevertheless, in the...
