The Constitutional Court recently handed down judgment regarding the nature and scope of the powers of provincial legislatures. The judgment, Premier: Limpopo Province vs Speaker of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and others, (2011) (Limpopo 1) was a consequence of the Constitutional Court’s finding in Premier: Limpopo Province vs Speaker: Limpopo Provincial Legislature and others, (2012) […]
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Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Fighting the Good Fight?
By Christopher Clark Over the past year or so, the profession of journalism has been under heavy attack from different sides. Even before the Protection of State Information, or secrecy, Bill crept on all fours into the South African Parliament, there was trouble. In the UK, the News of the World‘s scandalous phone hacking of […]
Posted inGeneral
A revolution of restitution
By Sharlene Swartz In President Zuma’s February State of the Nation address, he mentioned nine programmes dealing with restitution and redress that were to receive attention in the coming two to three years. Among these were (1) housing subsidies for those earning under R13000pa; (2) a retooling of the land reform process; (3) a new […]
Posted inGeneral, Media
Simplification and child soldiers: Turning victims into victims
By Kelly-Jo Bluen Watching violence on TV screens does not sensitise viewers to the reality of the conflict. Rather, it serves to numb viewers, to instill within them a sense of fatigue and, most pertinently, from the vantage point of passive observer, to allow for oversimplified ethical polarisations of good vs. evil. These are the […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
South Africa, the Rome Statute, Zimbabwe and torture
By Clare Ballard “Law is nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.” – Wendell Phillips So accustomed have we become to reports of atrocities in war-ravaged, post colonial Africa that I believe we’d be forgiven for associating the term ‘impunity’ with the perpetrators of these crimes, even though the nature of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The real cause of our constitutional crisis
By Ian Dewar At the end of the explanatory memorandum to the fully amended Constitution on the info.gov.za website our Constitution is described thus: “This Constitution therefore represents the collective wisdom of the South African people and has been arrived at by general agreement.” Now, nearly sixteen years since its promulgation, there is little evidence […]
Posted inGeneral
Africa is not a movie script
By Takura Zhangazha American and Hollywood celebrities are great to watch in the popular movies and television series that are now available on many African TV channels. In recent years, like celebrity sportspersons, they have also become involved with international humanitarian organisations (such as Unicef) to increase global awareness of the many disasters that afflict […]
Posted inGeneral
Discovering ubuntu in the Somali regions of Africa
By Namhla Thando Matshanda On a recent trip to the Horn of Africa I spent a substantial amount of time in Somali-inhabited areas. Most of this time was spent in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state, with a brief visit to the autonomous northern region of Somalia, Somaliland. I feel compelled to write this piece in the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mbeki’s big blunder: apartheid reparations
By Isaac Mangena When tabling the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report in Parliament on April 2003, former president Thabo Mbeki lashed out at victims of apartheid brutality who were seeking reparations against multinational companies, most of which are based in the United States. “We consider it completely unacceptable that matters that are central to the […]
Posted inGeneral
Saving our children by sobering them up
By Liezille Pretorius Dear Comrade Angie Motshekga, The problem I wish to address with you is the issue of alcohol misuse in schools. It is my opinion that the current contention around the alcohol-free schools campaign is flawed because it doesn’t take into account the child’s unique socio-economic/politic circumstances. In this letter I show that […]
Posted inGeneral
The days of our politicians’ lives
By Gosiame Legoale I have a president who has an affinity for showers and an appetite for women, matched only by my imagination when boastfully declaring to any who would care to listen exactly how many skirts I’ve accounted for. I have a deputy president who has no official deputy first lady to utilise as […]
Posted inGeneral
A man who is not a man
By Fundile Majola There was a mixture of excitement and anxiety in the Port Elizabeth air on that sunny Monday morning of November 24. I was ready for my last matric examination paper, Geography. I was also ready to be made and declared a man – the initiation process was to start that evening. I […]