The debate about the Secrecy Bill has shifted a little, from “OMG, what were they thinking” to a more nuanced discussion about what outcomes the civil-society coalition really want on the bill. This is less fun than the first debate, which was a love in where everyone agreed with everyone else, that something must be […]
Alison Tilley
Alison Tilley is an attorney working at the Open Democracy Advice Centre as the CEO. She specialises in right to know law. She is a founding trustee of the Women's Legal Centre, and has a keen interest in gender issues.
Posted inNews/Politics
Paranoid about the secrecy bill?
They say paranoia is just being in possession of all the facts. Clearly the minister of state security knows more than I do — he accuses us of “war talk” in relation to the secrecy bill. What? Not just that but we apparently have engaged in “personal attacks on members of the ad hoc committee […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Classifying everyone and everything is not a sensible solution
In an Idasa seminar with Collins Chabane and other persons of note, he mentioned that other governments are very concerned about South Africa’s ability to secure their information. I had no idea. Of course, we all know about the concern around South Africa’s ability to manage its own information — late registration of births leading […]
Posted inGeneral
Asking nicely…is a bad position to be in
According to current victims’ services policies in South Africa, victims of crime generally have the right to request information about the status of their case, but do not have the automatic right to receive that information without asking for it. So we currently place the burden on the victim to fill in a form, pay […]
Posted inGeneral
Crime and empowerment
I met a really interesting Syrian football fan in Nature’s Valley in the Western Cape during the World Cup. His way of avoiding the apparently terrifying crime In South Africa was simple — he stayed in the Valley, in a tent to start with, and then moved to a chalet when he realised winter in […]
Posted inGeneral
Noel Robb: One of the good ones
I met Noel Robb at a momentous time, for the country and myself. I had just decided to give up practice as a lawyer, and become what was known as the National Legislation Monitor at the Black Sash. I was not entirely sure what the job entailed, but reposed great confidence in a small group […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mbeki as tragic hero — not
I am as sentimental as the next person. Really, I am. And I did my Shakespeare at school, and I know the story about the tragic hero — a great man, with a fatal flaw. I love those Elizabethan tragedies, real and imagined: poor Mary, Queen of Scots, going bravely to her death in a […]
Posted inMedia
That cartoon
Rape. It is a hard thing to think about, and not usually the subject of cartoons. Did the Zapiro cartoon cross the line? And what is that line, anyway? I don’t think it crossed the line. Michael Trapido thinks it did, and argues (in his blog “Will Mondli fire Zapiro?”) that it did so for […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Showdown at OK Corral… well, E249, New Assembly wing.
I am often baffled by what makes the news and what doesn’t. I mean let’s just assume for argument’s sake, we have a showdown between the longstanding chair of a legislative committee, and a member of the executive. Oh well, ok, it was Chauke and the Minister of Home Affairs. There is a whole ‘he […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Games over, free Tibet
‘Games over, Free Tibet’ is one of the really good slogans coming out of the Free Tibet campaign. The campaign has got a lot of press recently. Mostly, of course, because of the useful insistence of the Chinese on parading the Olympic flame through cities in which there are a bunch of Tibetan exiles and […]
Posted inLifestyle
A pleasure to visit this library
So, you are all feeling a little glum, it seems. Between the Zimbabwe elections turning into a farce, our president denying that he said there wasn’t a crisis, the Scorpions being sent packing with their collective tails between their legs, food and fuel prices going up, the interest rate going up, and the general lack […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Sex, school and why it’s all pear-shaped
Well, call me Mother Grundy, but I disapprove of sex at school. The report of the South African Human Rights Commission on school-based violence has me very worried. And well done to the commission, by the way, for keeping an eye on this particular issue. The idea of school being a hotbed of violent sexual […]