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?
The relationship between democracy and governance and the realisation of socio-economic rights is an important issue for debate. SACSIS seeks to understand this relationship and identify issues that act as barriers to pro-poor democracy.
Leonard Gentle -
Ah Julius Malema…everywhere else, the world is responding to the biggest crisis of capitalism since 1929 and the threat posed to democracy by the markets. NATO is overthrowing Gaddafi in the latest of the ebbs and flows of the Arab Spring; the indignant of Spain and Greece are rising up against austerity programmes; and global dominance is seeping away from a debt-ridden US.
The world is changing. So far there have been two responses that dominate public opinion: disengagement and...
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
Two successful bidders - SAAB and Ferrostaal – have provided damning evidence of corruption in South Africa’s arms deal.
As South Africa focuses on the unfolding evidence of possible corruption, we must however pause and ask how it came to be that we not only entered into deals with these companies, but how it was possible that the decision was taken to spend our nation’s money on the most expensive deals on offer during a period of excessive fiscal restraint. ...
Jane Duncan -
Jacob Zuma’s rise to power has unleashed a torrent of rash, boorish, misogynistic and inciteful speech from politicians and commentators. In this regard, the utterances of ANC Youth League’s Julius Malema and ex-columnist Eric Miyeni come to mind. Why has public discourse plumbed to such depths of late? How serious is the problem and what can be done about it?
In 2009, the South African Communist Party (SACP) warned against the emergence of what it described as a proto-fascist...
Dale T. McKinley -
“With one hand we hand out blankets, calm the tide with donations and good-works. On the other hand we unreservedly support a system which treats the poor like filth. We turn a blind eye when those self-same blankets are burnt by the powers we vote into place. We hide and we are afraid; afraid of ‘them’ coming over our walls, afraid of questioning those in power.”
No, these are not the words of an insecure and guilt-ridden white suburban ‘liberal’...
Richard Pithouse -
The shacks that ring the towns and cities of the global South are a concrete instantiation of both the long catastrophe of colonialism and neocolonial 'development' and the human will to survive and to hope to overcome. To step into the shack settlement is often to step into the void. This is not, as is so often assumed, because a different type of person finds that the tides of history have washed her into a shack settlement. It is because the shack settlement does not fully belong to...
Richard Pithouse -
Courage...is a local virtue. It partakes of the morality of the place. - Alain Badiou
There is no denying the import of the very public dramas that play out in the sphere of elite politics. Jacob Zuma's decision on how to respond to Thuli Madonsela's report will certainly have some consequence in shaping the trajectory of our increasingly compromised democracy. But politics is about force and reason and reason on its own is seldom a sufficient check on either the construction or...
