Calling on young South Africans to share their ideas in the Thought Leader Ukuzibuza writing contest
Social Justice
Posted inEnvironment
Environmental justice protects people too
The growth of sectors such as agriculture and mining, which is good for the economy, often causes damage to the natural environment, which in turn hurts people
Posted inEquality
Why is it still so hard for civil society to talk about internal racism?
Appointing Black women to leadership positions is a drop in the ocean of the real work that needs to be done to truly transform organisations, especially in the nonprofit world
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health, Media, News/Politics
Creating space to talk about the politics of shame
By Rebecca Helman and Neziswa Titi In their interview with Elspeth Probyn, Vivienne Bozalek, Tamara Shefer and Ronelle Carolissen argue that “[s]hame has typically been understood as a negative emotion, a view which is prevalent in individualist, psychologising discourses about human experience”. Conversely Probyn argues that shame can be a generative force, one which is […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health, Media
Reattributing shame as an act of social justice
By Rebecca Helman I remember the first time I gave a talk to a group of strangers about that fact that I had been raped. The shame of it felt like a weight, trying to crush me into the floor as I attempted to stand up tall and look unblinkingly out into the room. In […]
Posted inGeneral
#FeesMustFall is unravelling SA’s founding pact
Post-1994 South Africa is founded on the principle of progressive access to privilege. This principle implies that those in the suburbs will continue to live there while those in shacks will be progressively admitted into the ranks of those with houses and amenities. It also implies that those that earn decent salaries will continue to […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, News/Politics
How to avoid an economic war
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India said “Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.” Nehru led a nation of hundreds of millions of poor Indians groaning under the postcolonial legacies that had shaped the subcontinent. Colonialism was not […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The theoretically bankrupt intifada against liberalism: A response to Jared Sacks
In case you didn’t get the memo: liberalism is passé. Society’s (imagined) love affair with liberal politics is over, and you’re supposed to be cheering the advent of a new polity: the rise of “radicalism” as the new descriptor of choice, one to be employed by a million student activists and thought leaders in their […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality
Voices from the platinum belt victory
Text by Gillian Schutte Films by Sipho Singiswa The stadium in Phokeng outside Rustenberg exploded in jubilation when the end of the longest strike in South African history was announced on June 23. Men and women waved their arms victoriously in the air and resounding ululations and cheering reverberated as a great burden of domestic […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, Health
Voices from Kagiso: Community says Mintails’ suspension is a smokescreen
Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has suspended Australian mining company Mintails’ operations in Kagiso on the west rand after community members embarked on protests citing serious environmental, safety and health violations and structural damage to their houses as a result of the mine’s operations in close proximity to their homes. Media for Justice reports that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Marikana Files
Social Justice Journalist and Filmmaker, Sipho Singiswa, takes us inside Marikana to meet the miners and community members who live in the impoverished settlements around the Lonmin Mining operation. He also interviews Head Researcher of the Bench Marks Foundation David Van Wyk on the issue of socioeconomic transgressions that this community is forced to deal […]