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?
Henry Siegman, the former head of the American Jewish Congress and the Synagogue Council of America, discusses Israel’s assault on Gaza. Commenting on Israeli justifications for killing Palestinians in the name of self-defense, he responds: "If you don’t want to kill Palestinians, if that’s what pains you so much, you don’t have to kill them. You can give them their rights, and you can end the occupation. And to put the blame for the occupation and for the...
Fazila Farouk -
On 28 July 2014, Defence for Children International Palestine reported that the death toll for the children of Gaza was 200 and rising. However, in the past day or two, the world received news that Israel had bombed a United Nations school in Gaza killing 15 people, mostly women and children. The Guardian newspaper reports, “United Nations officials described the killing of sleeping children as a disgrace to the world and accused Israel of a serious violation of international...
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
South Africans of all stripes often lament the general lack of entrepreneurial success and limited support for its development in the country. So when President Jacob Zuma created a new small business ministry, the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD), soon after entering his second term in office, the news was well received all round. The new ministry has its work cut out for it, but its minister, Lindiwe Zulu, appears confident that it will be up and running and producing...
Seven of the fastest growing economies in the world are African. As a continent, the African economy is growing at 7-10%, which is faster than any other continent, but Africa’s growth is fuelled by debt and the mass sale of resources. From Chinese and French interests in Africa’s mineral resources to America’s expanding War on Terror, a host of imposing nations are attempting to consolidate their grip on Africa. Marwan Bishara of Al Jazeera’s Empire travels to Kenya,...
In this 1990 interview with Bill Moyers, the recently deceased celebrated South African writer, Nadine Gordimer, says that she was slow to develop a political understanding, but that she came to understand politics through how it affected people rather than through theory. She talks about the astonishing experience of meeting real revolutionaries in the 1960's who went to jail for their ideals, which she says, was a revelation to her coming from a "petit bourgeoisie" background....
Glenn Ashton -
We have thrown bags of money at education over the past two decades. Education consumes nearly a quarter of our total budget, close to a quarter of a trillion Rand a year. We spend more money on education than anything else. Yet despite tardy progress, meaningfully reforming the broken apartheid era education system appears to be an impossible task.
We still have some of the worst outcomes in the world as far as literacy and numeracy are concerned. We still struggle to properly teach the...
