Today, there is broad recognition that access to capital is only one of the inputs required for economic development and poverty alleviation. Furthermore, the marginalised — like anyone — require and use a variety of financial services for a variety of purposes. And some of these services work better than others, for reasons we are […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
Just trust me, I’m a lawyer…
Despite a stonewalling legal establishment, the issue of attorney misconduct is hard to fudge. The reality is that South Africa’s law societies place member interests above transparency, appear to discipline members inconsistently, and are indifferent to international benchmarks. A few weeks back this column touched on the latitude granted to the professions to regulate themselves […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
EU must show leadership in fight against HIV, Aids
By Marielle Bemelmans After decades of struggle against HIV, there is still an urgent need to do more to stop needless deaths. Despite effective and largely affordable drugs, tools and models of care, 1.7 million die annually from Aids-related illnesses. This is unacceptable. Earlier this week, the European Commission hosted a Brussels meeting to discuss the […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Land reform, is it that simple?
Every now and again there are vehement political calls from various quarters and “politically conscious” observers for land that was stolen through apartheid colonialism to be given back to its rightful owners. Typically this involves urging, pressuring, and sometimes even heckling the ruling party to somehow effect this land reform at best “immediately” or at […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
What will King Zwelithini make of the Zulu gay wedding?
KwaZulu-Natal broke new ground recently. Two men, draped in traditional apparel, stood before family, friends and well-wishers. There was music, there was love and I imagine the good-old wedding jitters. They said “I do” and shared a kiss. The newlyweds are Tshepo Cameron Sithole-Modisane and Thoba Calvin Sithole-Modisane. The Sithole-Modisanes are not your “ordinary” young, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
You have no right to own land if you’re black and rural
Powerful lobby groups regularly sound alarm bells when the torpid rate of land reform fleetingly raises the possibility of land expropriation and, with it, the spectre of the violation of white farmers’ property rights. In reality, it is black, rural, poor South Africans who are already being deprived of the right to own property, even […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics, Tech
Africa’s mobile revolution in education
For a continent that has historically been largely unconnected via land-based telecommunications, mobile telephony uptake over the last few years has been nothing short of a revolution on the African continent. In 1995 there were an estimated 600 000 mobile phone subscriptions in Africa. A decade later this number rose to 87 million and in 2012 it […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
How the largest movement in history is restoring justice to the world
Paul Hawken, writer of Blessed Unrest — How the largest movement in the world came into being and why no one saw it coming (Penguin 2007), is an indefatigable speaker and champion for environmental justice, who gave more than a thousand talks on the environment in the course of 15 years, before writing the book. […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
Alcohol in Australia: Some observations
So we’re facing the prospect of something that the advertising industry has been fighting for years: the banning of alcohol advertising. Having just visited one of the great nanny states, Australia, I thought it would be interesting to share some observations of how alcohol issues are handled there. The fact that I was able to […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Porn bad for the brain, bad for women
Jacques Rousseau’s article in the Mail & Guardian (March 22-27 2013) titled “The naked truth about porn on television” cannot go unchallenged. Rousseau is the chairperson of the Free Society Institute and defends the viewing of pornography on television. His intervention in the recent debate about whether we should allow pornography on television is clearly […]
Posted inNews/Politics
There is honour in SA’s Bangui loss
The debacle involving elite South African forces in the Central African Republic, culminating in their hasty withdrawal this week, is a reminder that more often than not the military “solution” provides anything but resolution to a problem. One does not have to delve back far to find that optimistically embarked upon campaigns often deliver endings […]
Posted inNews/Politics
We will ask questions about CAR
By Ntsako Shivambu I am one of those so-called clever blacks who believe you are a tribalist, a traditionalist and a clueless politician that doesn’t have any leadership skills. But the reason I’m writing this letter is not to talk about that but what you said during the memorial service for the soldiers who died […]