Government
South Africa under construction: Give public works a chance
The Expanded Public Works Programme aims to create millions of short-term jobs every year while also providing the county with much needed infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and schools in areas that need it.
Amelia Midgley
Opinion | 13 March 2013
DA electoral reforms ignore the main problem: party funding
Of all the adjectives used to describe South African politics, boring cannot be one of them. Completely out of the blue the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Tuesday submitted an Electoral Reform Bill (Bill) to Parliament, which aims “to provide for the demarcation of … constituencies” in order to deal with the “alienation by voters from the political system”.
Gregory Solik
Opinion | 6 March 2013
Constitutionally speaking about the 2014 election
The 2014 election campaign has clearly begun and promises to be long and almost
certainly very bitter. Labour relations — and relations with labour — are likely to be
in the forefront, with Cosatu, as a member of the governing tripartite allliance, in the
thick of it.
Opinion | 27 February 2013
Activists demand direct elections of Members of Parliament
Should citizens be able to choose their MPs? This is the question that was posed by the "My vote counts" campaign yesterday evening at the Central Methodist Church in Greenmarket Square.
Nokubonga Yawa
Brief | 27 February 2013
Early ANC election salvoes backfire
The government has loosed off the first major salvoes of the 2014 election campaign
— and all of them have backfired. That is one labour movement view of three
official announcements over the past ten days.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 13 February 2013
Playing politics while the Boland burns
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille is correct in claiming that there is
political interference in the strikes and recurrent violence in the Boland. And the
DA is as responsible as any other political grouping for being involved in — or
“interfering” — in the ongoing upheaval.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 23 January 2013
SJC hold commission outside Cape High Court in protest against minister’s court application
About 500 people gathered outside the Cape High Court last week Thursday opposing Minister of Police Nathi Mthetwa’s application to stop a Commission of Inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha from continuing.
Mary-Jane Matsolo
Brief | 19 December 2012
An alternative to more chaos and destruction?
The promises and the policies, the personalities elected, even the potential political
punch-ups at Mangaung are basically irrelevant.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 19 December 2012
Ridiculous complexity of housing in South Africa
Millions of South Africans at the end of apartheid dreamed of living in a house one day. This was the hope offered by the Reconstruction and Development Programme. Eighteen years later there has been progress. The Department of Housing says that over 3 million houses have been built sheltering over 13 million people. But there is a terribly long way to go.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
Feature | 21 November 2012