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?
Steven Friedman -
OUR real ‘ticking time bomb’ may be not poverty, but what it always has been – race. Our angriest people may not be those forced to survive on much less than they need, but the black middle class.
Poverty is our biggest problem: it affects most people and imposes huge economic and social costs. But the frequently heard claim that poor people are about to rise up and destroy the economy ignores reality: poverty usually forces people to be more pragmatic because more is at...
Media for Justice followed humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers (GOTG) to the platinum belt in Marikana where GOTG distributed food parcels to 10,000 people. The mineworkers strike in Marikana has just entered its 5th month with workers holding out for a monthly salary of R12,500. Without an income, the workers and their families are experiencing severe shortages of food, hunger and health complications. Their plight has become a humanitarian crisis that has touched the hearts of...
Shawn Hattingh -
The platinum strike, which began on the 23rd of January has become a showdown with the mining houses, the media and the state on one side, and platinum mineworkers on the other. In fact, the mining companies, top state officials and ANC politicians have been doing everything to break the strike because they recognise its significance. The current strike, along with the wildcat strikes of two years ago, is an extremely important political event and its outcome, depending on who gains the upper...
Following the ANC's robust win at the polls in South Africa's 2014 General Elections, on 22 May 2014, SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation hosted a panel discussion to probe the question: "Will the ANC rule until Jesus returns?"
The primary impetus for this question was the fact that the ANC won the 2014 General Election despite its leader being tarnished by major corruption scandals and the party's service delivery record being less than exemplary. Meanwhile South...
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
A curious debate between agency and structure has unfolded in South Africa in relation to “small business” over the last two decades. On the one hand, the celebration of successful entrepreneurs as exceptional individuals has led to an explosion of self-help blogs, courses and books. Successful South African entrepreneurs in every niche are celebrated. There is nothing explicitly wrong with these inspirational stories of success. However, taken to their extreme, these relentless...
Harry Browne -
Dublin - For many years, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was the member of the British parliament for West Belfast in Northern Ireland, albeit one who refused to take his seat in London. Since 2011, however, he has served in the Irish legislature, without abstention, representing constituents across the border in the Republic of Ireland’s County Louth.
But if you can take the man out of Belfast, you can’t take the terrible history of Belfast out of the man. A few weeks ago he was...
