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?
Mandisi Majavu -
Sport in South Africa has always been used by different political actors as a vehicle to advance political agendas. During the apartheid era sport was racially segregated, and one of the tactics that anti-apartheid activists used to fight against apartheid was the international campaign against apartheid sport. The post-apartheid government does not only utilise sports for nation-state building, but to mediate racial and social inequality too. Sports stars such as the late Jacob “Baby...
Cosmetics and personal care products are among the least regulated consumer products on the market today. Right now companies are allowed to use virtually any product that they want without any safety assessments before putting products on the market. Cosmetic products include makeup, shampoos, face washes, cologne, aftershave and even baby products. Of the 12,000 chemicals used in the cosmetics industry today, some 80 percent have never been assessed for safety. We simply do not know what...
Gillian Schutte -
The fanfare at the beginning of a New Year is usually celebratory and full of hope. This celebration is a way for people to wipe the slate clean and begin anew. But last year, 2013, was a particularly tumultuous year in South Africa when we were besieged by problems. In reality, these problems have been with us for many years and cannot be swept under the carpet. Many of the challenges South Africa faces are systemic and must be addressed with greater urgency. Let us include the resolution of...
In an interview with Democracy Now! following the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who died on Saturday, world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author and Institute Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Noam Chomsky says, "There is a convention that you’re not supposed to speak ill of the recently dead, which unfortunately imposes a kind of vow of silence, because there is nothing good to say. (Sharon) was a brutal killer; he had...
John Feffer -
Several years before William Shakespeare wrote his first play, England was rocked by a bloody political scandal. Queen Elizabeth, the virgin monarch who had been on the throne for nearly three decades, was in a battle of wills with her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. England’s religious future was at stake. Would it stay Protestant, as Elizabeth had decreed, or would it revert to Catholicism, as Mary preferred? Mary had fled Scotland for the presumed safety of England and her...
Jane Duncan -
At its special national congress last month, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) took a significant decision not to support the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in the next elections. Numsa is the largest union affiliated to the troubled Congress of South African Trade Unions, and its clout is considerable, so its decision is a turning point for the country’s politics.
Numsa supports socialist ideas and, as a result, at the congress, it resolved to...
