Posted inEqualityGeneralNews/Politics

Agreed: SA flouting immigration laws a concern…for foreigners

By David Cote In a recent statement, the parliamentary portfolio committee on home affairs released a statement titled “Flouting of immigration regulations a concern” in which it cautioned foreign nationals in South Africa not to commit crimes and put “in jeopardy the basis on which they are in South Africa”. The committee quoted instances of […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Marie biscuit corruption shows up the rot

This week a minor official, corrupted with a packet of Marie biscuits, highlighted starkly the present rot and inequities in the nation. Corruption is endemic to all political systems. What differs is how it is dealt with. Because governments in Western democracies are easily voted out, popular outrage over corruption is assuaged by periodically acting […]

Posted inEqualityNews/Politics

The monster in the attic needs therapy

The president’s Cabinet should be a cosy little family of government departments — an inner circle where each ministry supports the other, in turn all making common cause for the greater national good. Instead the avuncular Jacob Zuma presides over a dysfunctional, maladjusted and in some cases, downright sinister bunch. The bullying, thug portfolios congregate […]

Posted inEqualityNews/Politics

Condemned to obscurity: The state of our population register and the right to vote

By Liesl Muller I recently attended an election-observer training session in preparation for next month’s elections. I was inspired by the chance to play my part in the democratic process shaping the future of our country. Voting is an opportunity many South Africans did not have in the years before democracy and which South Africans […]

Posted inNews/Politics

How to fix Lindela

By Corey R Johnson The Lindela Repatriation Centre, South Africa’s main detention facility for persons deemed to be illegal and slated for deportation, has a long and notorious reputation for repeated rights abuses of detainees. In 2000 the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) released a report, which detailed the human-rights violations and listed a […]

Posted inGeneralNews/Politics

Nkosazana good for AU, good for SA

As Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma prepared to take over her responsibilities as the new and first female leader of the African Union Commission, the reaction back home was somewhat bitter-sweet. Many said the former foreign affairs minister was being sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. They argued SA was losing one of its finest. That she […]

Posted inNews/Politics

South Africa needs a new national myth

I’ve been talking to a lot of people lately. The young tech entrepreneurs and artists I met at Culture Shift. The 40-something filmmaker, writer and consultant I first encountered at an idea orgy (where ideas mate to produce new ideas). The marketing guru inspired by the potential for technology to inspire new social movements. The […]