Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has now emerged as a new, self proclaimed, socialist party. It plans to stage a mass rally at Marikana on August 17, marking the anniversary of the bloody fracture in the local trade union and political environment.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 22 July 2013
Living conditions of Lonmin workers show how exploitation and neglect continue on South African platinum mines.
Raphael Chaskalson
Opinion | 17 July 2013
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived. But, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” So wrote American author and poet Maya Angelou; providing an insight that seems highly pertinent to the South Africa of today, especially when considering the fraught situation in the mining sector.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 16 July 2013
Trade unions are irresponsible and greedy, demanding double digit pay rises and so driving up inflation and threatening the stability of the currency and the economy. And while they criticise government policies, protest about the system or refuse immediately to accept government brokered deals, they provide no adequate explanations or alternatives.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 10 July 2013
BRT has become a buzzword when talking about creative transport solutions. However, it is only under very specific conditions that BRT provides the one-size-fits-all answer to a city’s needs.
Martin Eichhorn
Opinion | 10 July 2013
For three long years, activists across the country campaigned to ban Israel’s practice of falsely labelling goods that are made in its illegal settlements as "made in Israel". In April this year, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) issued a regulation banning this practice.
Jonathan Dockney
Opinion | 3 July 2013
As massive protests swept across Egypt on Sunday, many outside of Egypt were surprised to see the sheer volumes of people that were unhappy with President Mohamed Morsi and his government, so soon after the revolution.
Mary Fawzy
Opinion | 3 July 2013
Should only lawyers be made judges? Greg Solik says no. He argues that for the judiciary to transform we need to go beyond the legal profession.
Greg Solik
Opinion | 3 July 2013
On 22 June a treaty for the blind was heading for disaster as negotiators stalled and refused to budge on hardline positions. Three days later a negotiator stepped out of a boardroom in the Atlas Medina hotel in Marrakesh and announced to a crowd of tense and exhausted observers, "We have a text!" The tears and dancing that followed is hardly what you’d associate with the making of international law.
Marcus Low
Opinion | 3 July 2013
This is an edited transcript of a speech by Judge Edwin Cameron on 28 June at the UNAIDS/LANCET Commissioners Dinner in Malawi. Cameron criticised stigmatising laws that hamper the response to HIV.
Edwin Cameron
Opinion | 2 July 2013
The advice of the Italian revolutionary, Antonio Gramsci constantly comes to mind these days: exercise pessimism of the intellect, but optimism of the will. I must admit that it has become a great deal easier over recent months to exercise pessimism of the intellect — and increasingly difficult to exercise optimism of the will to do something about changing things, domestically or globally.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 2 July 2013
On Sunday I helped organise and participated in a small protest against human rights abuses and inadequate action on climate change by the Obama administration during his visit to the University of Cape Town.
Eduard Grebe
Opinion | 2 July 2013
I have examined myself and cannot find an anti-American bone. I don’t feel conflicted at the fact that I prefer hamburgers to kneidlach soup or cholent or pap.
Doron Isaacs
Opinion | 1 July 2013
The private security industry in South Africa is one of the largest in the world, with active registered security guards outnumbering police by almost three to one and eight security companies for every police station.
Craig Oosthuizen
Opinion | 26 June 2013
E-tolling, excrement and expanded public works. Apart from starting with the letter “E” they appear at first sight to have nothing in common. But with the country heading toward what promises to be a bitterly contested election in April or May next year, they are not only linked, they are likely to be major campaigning features.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 24 June 2013
Jack Lewis argues that government's transformation plan is based on identity politics and is misguided. He asks people on the political left to speak out against it.
Jack Lewis
Opinion | 19 June 2013