The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
SACSIS promotes the principle of just economies. We are opposed to economic development that violates social and economic rights and increases inequalities in the pursuit of economic growth.
Glenn Ashton -
A remarkable thing is happening in the world of economics. Dissatisfied students from various institutions around the world insist that the dominant economics curriculum must change, as it inadequately reflects, or deals with, our current economic realities. They clearly realise that real change occurs from within.
These students demand changes that not only reflect our post-2008 economic crash world, but further insist that the entire theoretical economics framework and curriculum be...
Leonard Gentle -
Two issues that journalists file under “labour news” continue to make headlines – the one inspirational, the other ludicrous. They show two very different faces of the now tired refrain of “20 years of democracy”.
In the one corner is the on-going platinum workers’ strike in which 70,000 workers lead a struggle to bury the tradition of cheap migrant labour that has been the cornerstone of wealth accumulation in this country. On the other is the spectre...
Isobel Frye -
With each passing day, the impact of the platinum strike increases its toll on workers and shareholders alike. The earlier announcement of the involvement of the new Minister of Energy appears to have dissipated to nothing. At the heart of the apparent failure of constructive social dialogue about the resolution of grievances – beyond the work of the Farlam commission looking in to the deaths at Marikana - appears to be an inability for actors in this tragedy to be able to...
Shawn Hattingh -
The platinum strike, which began on the 23rd of January has become a showdown with the mining houses, the media and the state on one side, and platinum mineworkers on the other. In fact, the mining companies, top state officials and ANC politicians have been doing everything to break the strike because they recognise its significance. The current strike, along with the wildcat strikes of two years ago, is an extremely important political event and its outcome, depending on who gains the upper...
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
A curious debate between agency and structure has unfolded in South Africa in relation to “small business” over the last two decades. On the one hand, the celebration of successful entrepreneurs as exceptional individuals has led to an explosion of self-help blogs, courses and books. Successful South African entrepreneurs in every niche are celebrated. There is nothing explicitly wrong with these inspirational stories of success. However, taken to their extreme, these relentless...
Fazila Farouk -
Inequality is hard to avoid here in the most unequal country in the world, yet South Africa’s chattering classes have for a very long time done exactly that. Admittedly there are many titillating distractions, from our polygamous president engulfed in corruption scandals to the vulgar display of wealth by our black economic empowerment beneficiaries, there is much to keep the chins of the more established sections of South African society wagging in gloomy disapproval.
However, as...
