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?
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In a discussion at a San Franciso event that principally focused on decriminalising marijuana in the "War on Drugs", Sir Richard Branson argues that it is also worth decriminalising heroin. He refers to Portugal where heroin use is treated as a health problem. Heroin users are not sent to prison, but instead have access to state funded outlets where they can get their drugs as well as clean needles. Consequently, the number of HIV cases has decreased dramatically and the problem...
Cameron Brisbane -
One of the ANC’s 2014 election slogans proudly boasts “A better life for all.” Its claim is supported by a series of service delivery achievements such as the building of three million (a contested figure) subsidised homes. The feel-good factor of these claims belies the reality that many communities are tired of empty promises, and the frequency of service delivery protests that has reached unprecedented proportions bears testament to the ”gatvol” factor....
In reflecting on 20 years of South Africa's democracy, a group of artists in Johannesburg have tapped into the major themes in our ambient culture to emerge with a fascinating exhibition of artworks that distil some of the key issues dominating our national discourse at this important juncture in South African history.
SACSIS' Fazila Farouk caught up with curator of the exhibition Farieda Nazier at the Ithuba Art Gallery and discovered that violence, censorship, racism, patriarchy and...
In a wide ranging interview covering the massacre in Marikana, a turning point in South Africa's history, Prof. Patrick Bond of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu Natal talks to Paul Jay of the Real News Network about the shifting sands of South African politics, workers' struggles and metalworker’s union, Numsa's new initiative to establish a movement for socialism as well as launch a workers' party. According to Bond, a workers' or labour party could emerge to...
Saliem Fakir -
On the drive to Pudong International airport from the centre of Shanghai, which takes an hour, you sometimes do not see the sky and nature has long been filled with a concrete jungle so dense that this has become the hallmark of the Chinese growth miracle.
Behind this lies the intricacy of Chinese-style economic policymaking and politics. Often the way things work in China remains opaque for us foreigners given the language and cultural barriers.
One way of thinking of China is...
Mohamed Motala -
For middle class South Africans it is a perplexing contradiction that the ANC continues to stay in power despite all the evidence of corruption displayed at the highest level of leadership and the party’s collusion with big corporations that are directly involved in the killing of poor workers. Against the backdrop of Nkandla and Marikana, the seemingly automatic laws of democratic practice enshrined in our Constitution through mechanisms that allow for mandate, accountability and...
