February 2014

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The SABC and the Problem of Political Control

Picture: Wikipedia Jane Duncan - And another one bites the dust. Yet another Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Lulama Makhoba, has left the beleaguered South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) before her term of office expires. Speculation has been rife that her position had become untenable given the growing power of Chief Operating Officer (COO), Hlaudi Motsoeneng. This leadership saga has grabbed the headlines, eclipsing another, less-well publicised process, the SABC’s editorial policy review. The...

The Impact of the 24-Hour News Cycle on Our Lives

Picture: ebea.org.uk Video For many people these days, the last thing you look at before you go to bed is news headlines and the first thing you look at when you wake up the next morning is the news. Meanwhile during the day, people are constantly checking up on the news. What are people expecting to discover with this constant interest in the news? Would we be happier turning away from the news or do we have an obligation to keep up with what transpires around us? For a fascinating and quite funny talk on the...

The Wages of the High Life: SA Politicians Getting Fat off the Public Purse

Picture: President Jacob Zuma courtesy GovernmentZA/flickr Dale T. McKinley - If you hadn’t already noticed the ever-expanding waistlines of most of our politicians – a tell-tale sign of a political class feeding feverishly at the public trough - then you might have missed the latest bulging of their other ‘stomach’, salaries. Following enabling recommendations from the ‘Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers’, President Zuma signed off on the most recent salary hike for the country’s national...

Why Buses Represent Democracy in Action

Picture: Fotopedia Video "The great inequality in developing countries makes it difficult to see that an advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport," argues Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá in Colombia.  Peñalosa shares some of the tactics he used to change the transportation dynamic in the Colombian capital...and suggests ways to think about building smart cities of the future. One of the biggest...

Restoring Land and Livelihoods

Picture: World Bank/flickr Glenn Ashton - At the birth of our democracy the incoming government ambitiously stated they would redistribute thirty percent of agricultural land, 25 million hectares, by 1999. When it was obvious the goal could not be met, the delivery date was shifted to 2014. Today we are not even a third of the way to achieving this limited target. The question of redistribution, restitution and broadened access to land remains a powder keg. The jobless and hopeless are increasingly receptive to this explosive...

Freedom for Palestine: Not Any Time Soon Says Middle East Expert

Picture: inminds.com Video More than 60 years after the formation of the state of Israel, successive rounds of “peace talks” have yielded no settlement that is viable for the occupied people of Palestine. But, are we entering a new era? US Secretary of State John Kerry has embraced his role with a great deal of enthusiasm striking up talks between both sides again. Nevertheless, Middle East expert, Na’eem Jeenah, says we shouldn’t place much hope on Kerry’s efforts. The Israelis are making...