Opinion

An urgent need for economic solutions

The platinum strike has correctly been categorised as a national crisis, but it is only one aspect of a much more severe crisis that confronts the country. This was highlighted on Tuesday by President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation (SoNA) address in which he stressed the economy.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 23 June 2014

How we’re fixing the health worker shortage in rural hospitals

Umthombo Youth Development Foundation (UYDF) is a non-profit organisation with a simple mission: address the shortage of qualified healthcare staff in rural hospitals. Why? To improve healthcare delivery to these underserved communities.

Jen Strydom

Opinion | 18 June 2014

Minister Ramathlodi: more of the same, or the same, just more?

In the mining villages of Ga-Pila where Anglo Platinum continues to profit from land grabbed from the traditional communities just west of Mokopane, the appointment of the new Minister of Mineral Resources, Advocate Ngoako Ramathlodi, has been met with a sense of betrayal.

Christopher Rutledge

Opinion | 16 June 2014

Youth Day: Struggle for equal education continues

Nearly 40 years ago on 16 June 1976, there was a youth uprising in Soweto. This was evoked by the learners at the time who did not want to be taught in Afrikaans. Their struggle was against an inferior education system that was setting them up for failure.

Sizwe Zubenathi Mapapu

Opinion | 16 June 2014

English, not Afrikaans, is the problem for today’s youth

As a young African and as a member of youth organisation Inkululeko in Mind, I hold 16 June as a day of honour for our heroes who gave their lives so that our generation would have better education. We have to defend and advance their legacy and pass it to generations to come.

Monde Kula

Opinion | 16 June 2014

“White foreigners”: The danger of history repeating itself

Gwede Mantashe, former chairman of the SA Communist Party, former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and now the powerful secretary-general of the governing ANC, sounded furious this week. In what must qualify as the most ironic case of “we’ve heard all that before”, he blamed the platinum belt strike and the consequent crisis on “white foreigners”.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 13 June 2014

Lwandle: too much acrimony, too little understanding

The house demolitions and evictions that took place in Strand last week highlighted the class and race fractures that run through our country.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 12 June 2014

NUM and Nzimande defence of Zokwana raises questions about transparency for unions

The recent allegations of financial impropriety in the upper ranks of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union are only the latest in a string of similar scandals over the years. And it is little wonder that these have erupted, for many trade unions have transformed themselves into bureaucratic organisations with business links.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 11 June 2014

Broken promises and climate of fear at Eastern Cape school

Back in 2012, learners at Moshesh Senior Secondary School, about 35km from Matatiele in the Eastern Cape, contacted Equal Education (EE) about the abysmal conditions at their school. Last week, EE returned to Moshesh to see what had changed.

Olivia Murphy

Opinion | 10 June 2014