Opinion

Life of a transgender sex worker

At over six-foot tall (with heels) and a body to rival any Hollywood starlet, Leigh cuts an impressive figure. Her jet-black hair and thick eyeliner give her an almost brooding and feline quality. She looks directly at you with a friendly smile and moves with finesse.

Jonathan Dockney

Opinion | 11 September 2013

When the solution compounds the problem

In April 2012, the Eastern Cape Department of Health (ECDoH) put in place a moratorium on the appointment of healthcare workers to vacant posts at facilities throughout the province. This moratorium was instituted in an attempt to control the chronic overspending that was pushing the department deeper into financial crisis each year.

Daygan Eagar

Opinion | 11 September 2013

A Tale of Rural Health

The failing healthcare system in the Eastern Cape affects everyone: urban communities, migrants from Gauteng and Cape Town too sick to work anymore or returning home to retire, and healthcare workers who don’t have the medicines, equipment and a functioning referral system, to offer the care their patients need.

Marije Versteeg

Opinion | 11 September 2013

The case for decriminalising the use of drugs

Drug abuse harms the individual, their family, community and country. As the drug trade increased globally, to save people from themselves, in 1970, US president Richard Nixon launched the ā€œwar on drugsā€.

JP van Niekerk

Opinion | 9 September 2013

Chequebook justice

Oscar Pistorius’ bail application apparently showed how the justice system works when someone is arrested. But actually his hearing and release on bail were exceptional.

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 5 September 2013

There should be no tolerance for anti-Semitism in Palestinian solidarity

A demonstration framed ā€˜as a silent protest against racism’ held at Wits University on 28 August turned out to be anything but an embodiment of the principles of the anti-racism it espoused when a small group of the protesters sang ā€˜dubula e juda’ (shoot the Jew).

Heidi-Jane Esakov

Opinion | 4 September 2013

What Cosatu shop stewards really think

Critical elements of the long-awaited and debated survey of the attitudes of Cosatu shop stewards were finally made public in Johannesburg last night. And they are likely to cause a considerable stir within labour and political circles, especially about the possible future launch of a union-backed labour party.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 2 September 2013

Labour crisis threatens all democracy

ā€œOne is workers’ unity and evermore shall be so.ā€ So goes an old labour movement song summarising the prime goal of trade unionism. It is also captured in the slogan: An injury to one is an injury to all. Equally, however, a disruption to one usually means a disruption to all.

Terry Bell

Opinion | 26 August 2013

Why Zionists should support critics of the Israeli Occupation

Shaul and Yuli Novak are two Israeli Defence Force veterans with the organisation Breaking the Silence. They are currently visiting South Africa, giving talks and promoting a book. Breaking the Silence publishes testimonies by Israeli soldiers of their actions, many of them human rights violations, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

Nathan Geffen

Opinion | 22 August 2013