Four days after the bloodletting that has become known as the Marikana massacre, my Inside Labour column supported the call for a comprehensive and independent inquiry. And it noted, reflecting a widespread view within the labour movement: “The Lonmin tragedy is a wake-up call that South Africa will ignore at its peril.” Now, 19 months later and with the strike on the platinum belt having gone on for nearly two months, that warning seems even more appropriate. Below is an updated commentary that first appeared on the first anniversary of Marikana.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 10 March 2014
The ANC is increasingly accused of breaking the promises it has made to the South African public. What is less widely discussed is how their promises contradict one another.
Gilad Isaacs
Opinion | 4 March 2014
Capitalism is not dead. But it is severely ill and its chronic contagion is spreading through the economic and social fibres of the world.
Terry Bell
News | 3 March 2014
This week we have reports on civil society’s response to the budget and a documentary hosted by Sonke Gender Justice.
Compiled by Brent Meersman
News | 26 February 2014
In March 2013, Dr Patrobas Mufubenga, a malaria expert, was unanimously appointed a member of the Developing Country NGO Delegation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria for a two-year renewable term. It is a key position at arguably the most important health funding mechanism in the world.
GroundUp Staff
News | 24 February 2014
“An Open Opportunity Society for All” is the idea which underpins the Democratic Alliance’s vision for South Africa.
Gilad Isaacs
Opinion | 19 February 2014
The curse of spin and speculation is well and truly upon us. It could hardly be otherwise, with a major strike on the platinum mines underway, a general election looming and the labour movement facing the biggest crisis in its history.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 18 February 2014
Entrepreneurs from two successful businesses in Khayelitsha are frustrated with the red tape that is blocking their businesses from growing.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 12 February 2014
There is a large backlog in social grant payments at South Africa Social Security Agency (SASSA) branches in Gugulethu and Mitchell's Plain. Beneficiaries who have not received their grants in months are accusing the state agency of incompetence.
Pharie Sefali
News | 22 January 2014
As everyone from monarchs to the labouring masses this week sought to share in the Mandela memorial moment, the myth machine went into overdrive, the very machine Mandela had so disparaged when I sat with him in his Johannesburg office in 1992. One sentence he uttered then has resonated with me throughout the years: “I am no messiah.”
Terry Bell
Opinion | 17 December 2013
It is two years since the first authoring of the National Development Plan (NDP), and over a year since the delivery of the revised plan by the National Planning Commission (NPC). To speed up progress, we must stop squabbling over which parts of it to implement and focus initially on education and labour-intensive industries.
Ayal Belling
Opinion | 21 November 2013
On the edge of the university hamlet of Grahamstown, there’s a municipal dump where people discard trash. It’s far enough out of town to not smell the stench – or for most locals not to be reminded of the haunting plight of the poor who subsist off the waste.
Mandy de Waal
Feature | 20 November 2013
Parents every year complain about the demands grade 12 learners have for their end of the year matric dances.
Pharie Sefali
News | 13 November 2013
Christmas is clearly coming. The store decorations are in place and chocolate Santas jostle on the shelves with strings of lights on ornamental trees while bins of festive season toffees and biscuit specials vie to keep the tills ringing.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 12 November 2013
Trade unions the world over are embattled and apparently finding difficulty adapting to the changed circumstances of this century. To varying degrees they react to challenges in the manner of decades past, without apparently realising the potential they have to influence the way forward in what is a changed world.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 6 November 2013
“South Africa has rather fallen off the radar,” the BBC journalist noted. This was similar to comments voiced by former anti-apartheid activists and by several one-time strugglista exiles, mainly in London, who never returned home to settle. Because, in the mainstream media of Europe, there is little mention of South Africa: and, after six weeks abroad, it was, for me, a useful reminder of how minor is our role in global political and economic affairs.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 28 October 2013