This morning, in the silicosis class action, black advocates requested the opportunity to address the court regarding remarks made by a member of one of the legal teams. Approximately 150 black advocates, mostly women, were at court in solidarity with the statement. According to John Stephens, a lawyer with SECTION27, leaders of each legal team "undertook to address the entrenched patterns of racial exclusion in the profession."
Advocates for transformation
Opinion | 23 October 2015
The recent furore over the lawyers in the huge silicosis court case focused on race, but the real issue is how lawyers advance the cause of justice, argue Pasika Nontshiza and John Clarke.
Pasika Nontshiza and John GI Clarke
Opinion | 23 October 2015
Over 800 students and student groups from 200 international institutions have signed a statement of support for the #FeesMustFall protesters.
Over 800 signatories
Opinion | 23 October 2015
While the government earnestly pledges its commitment to reversing inequality, it reproduces inequality in the normal behaviour it expects for itself and the broader elite of South Africa’s political-economy. Two recent and very public events illustrate these opposing positions.
Jeff Rudin
Opinion | 13 October 2015
In King Leopold’s Ghost, the historian Adam Hochschild uncovers the horrors committed in the Belgian Congo in the years before and after 1900. It is a history of slavery, murder and mutilation – anyone who’s seen the pictures of piles of cut-off hands cannot but be horrified by it.
Marcus Low
Opinion | 9 October 2015
Over the past few years, we have seen an explosion of arguments for and against gay rights in Africa. Those in favour of gay rights point out that they can help to protect sexual minorities by making discrimination illegal, in the process making societies more equitable. Those opposed to gay rights allege that homosexuality only arrived with Europeans, that gay rights are a threat to the African nation, and a threat to the heterosexual family.
Andrew Tucker
Opinion | 6 October 2015
During Thomas Piketty’s Nelson Mandela lecture a friend tweeted that, despite the standing ovation, many would choose what to remember. They would parrot his call for investment in education because that was unthreatening. Forget land redistribution, a wealth tax and the national minimum wage, just get the kids in school!
Doron Isaacs
Opinion | 6 October 2015
We, as a nation, are deeply in debt. And that is very worrying, with declining disposable incomes the rising costs of living and with another festive season fast approaching. Government admits that many households are drowning in debt”. So the plea is for citizens to save more and to retain pensions rather than cash in existing provisions.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 5 October 2015
To hear those two words from a majority of the Constitutional Court after another wave of tireless campaigning on one of the oldest and most fundamental issues we face as a country was brutal.
Gregory Solik
Opinion | 1 October 2015
Thomas Piketty, French economist and author of the bestselling Capital in the 21st Century, was due to arrive and deliver a lecture on inequality at UCT on Wednesday afternoon. He was prevented from flying (apparently for not having enough blank pages in his passport) and it was arranged that he would deliver the lecture virtually, via a live stream.
Ben Stanwix
Opinion | 30 September 2015
This year’s Annual National Assessments (ANA), which are administered in literacy and numeracy to all learners in grades 1-6 and 9, have been postponed till December following opposition to their administration from teacher unions. How should we understand the value of these assessments, the reasons for the opposition from unions and how the assessments can be improved for the future?
Stephen Taylor
Opinion | 30 September 2015
To test or not to test? That is not the question although it is the way the current row about basic education has largely been presented.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 29 September 2015
Martin Shkreli was the most hated man on the internet for a brief time this week. His company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, pushed up the price of a medicine, pyrimethamine, used to treat a life-threatening disease from $13.50 (approx R185) to $750 (approx R10,250) a pill.
Nathan Geffen
Opinion | 23 September 2015
On 30 September 2015, thousands will march in Pretoria and Cape Town under the banner of Unite Against Corruption. This is a call across our country to reject maladministration and theft in the public and private sectors.
Amanda Rinquest
Opinion | 22 September 2015
If the rise of robots — the spread of automation — is killing jobs and threatening the world with disaster, how can this be seen as potentially beneficial? It’s a question that is frequently asked and seldom answered.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 21 September 2015
There are at least three clear ways in which pseudoscience or bad science can harm consumers.
Jacques Rousseau
Opinion | 16 September 2015