Opinion
AMCU victory is more than just about the figures: A response to Gilad Isaacs
Gilad Isaacs underestimates the scale of AMCU's victory. His analysis offers an indicator of winner/loser based on contrasting the final settlement with the initial demand and initial offer. But this is arbitrary.
Peter Alexander
Opinion | 30 June 2014
The social catastrophe that threatens South Africa
The South African economy is facing a rocky period. But don’t blame the platinum strike or the union or workers involved. That labour dispute was a symptom, not the cause, of problems that had developed outside of the control of the workers.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 30 June 2014
Malema should learn black consciousness is a philosophy of love not hatred
Che Guevara famously said that: "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that a true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." Black Consciousness itself is guided by the feelings of love; it is a philosophy of love. This was central to some of the philosophy on which the movement was founded such as the work of people like James Cone and Paulo Freire.
Ayanda Kota
Opinion | 23 June 2014
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