Opinion and Analysis
What the law says about police using violence
Police are only allowed to use force as an absolute last resort when managing protests. But recent violence around several evictions of shackdwellers in Cape Town, prompted GroundUp to establish what the law says.
Daneel Knoetze
Opinion | 2 September 2014
Business shoots itself in the wages foot
The opening salvoes have again been fired in another round in the war about a national minimum wage. And on both sides there are accusations of the selective choice of research to bolster arguments.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 1 September 2014
Tim Noakes and the responsibility of experts
One of the major medical advances of the last few decades has been the two-dose vaccine for children against measles. A responsible doctor or public health expert would not do anything to jeopardise public confidence in the vaccine. Yet this is exactly what UCT's Professor Tim Noakes did this past weekend, writes Nathan Geffen.
Nathan Geffen
Opinion | 27 August 2014
Gaza, Israel and South Africa’s edge of reason
Photos of South Africa's national schools debate team wearing keffiyehs and pins with the Palestinian flag fuelled a hurricane of social media hate earlier in August 2014. Mandy de Waal interviewed members of the team and considers what can be learned from that perfect storm.
Mandy de Waal
Analysis | 27 August 2014
Welcoming a slight improvement for vulnerable workers
In an unequal society, and especially one suffering an economic crisis, the sellers of labour will always be disadvantaged. That is the simple reality of the system in which we live.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 25 August 2014
Do big electronic dance music festivals spread the love?
From Miami’s supercharged Ultra Music festival to Rocking the Daisies, Cape Town has become home to some of the highest grossing music festivals in the country. Our music journalist, Zethu Gqola, takes a look at how, if at all, four of the biggest festivals have benefitted struggling communities in and around Cape Town.
Zethu Gqola
Opinion | 20 August 2014
Sex work, crime & the working class
All who sell their labour in order to survive are workers. And all workers are, to one or other degree, exploited in that they are paid less than the final value of the work they do. Within a profit-driven system it could hardly be otherwise.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 18 August 2014
Philippi: an eviction by any other name
When the Anti-Land Invasion Unity (ALIU) descended on 40-year-old Sophie Nqiba's shack they destroyed only half of it. Presumably, if the City of Cape Town's own criteria for the demolitions are used, it was the half which was “uncompleted” or “vacant”. For Nqiba, her partner and their five children it is a surreal and meaningless explanation.
Daneel Knoetze
Opinion | 15 August 2014
Ehrenreich’s Facebook post “idiotic and against the traditions of Cosatu”
An eye for an eye and the whole world would be blind, the Mahatma famously said.
Brent Meersman
Opinion | 14 August 2014