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 embraces a rights based approach to development, which views poverty as a denial of human rights.
Gillian Schutte -
I met Marikana community member, mineworker and activist, Tsepo M, at a coffee shop in Melville. He had some business to attend to in Johannesburg and a colleague set up the meeting for me to discuss the current situation in Marikana.
A man in his late 50’s, Tsepo’s face bears the markings of years of hard work and struggle.
He tells me that he has been attending the Farlam Commission – an intense situation, which is infused with painful moments and trauma. In addition...
Gillian Schutte -
This weekend at the Joburg Gay Pride parade, the One in Nine Campaign disrupted the parade to make a call for one minute of silence on behalf of the many black lesbians and transsexual individuals who have been murdered over the past few years because of their sexual orientation and gender expression. It was an act of defiance and civil disobedience.
The thing about civil disobedience is that it confronts and holds accountable the norms that exist in society today. So when Joburg Pride...
Jane Duncan -
The Commission of Enquiry headed by retired judge Ian Farlam, into the deaths in August of approximately 44 people at Marikana, and the injury and arrest of scores more, has not got off to a good start.
In the first few days of its existence, the Commission appeared to have scant regard for those most affected by these events, proceeding in spite of the fact that family members of the deceased were not present. The fact that Farlam subsequently saw sense and postponed the Commission is to...
David Bruce -
This article is written in collaboration with the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum.President Zuma has appointed Judge Ian Farlam to head up a Commission of Inquiry into the massacre at Marikana. But is it the appropriate mechanism for dealing with the most pressing issue that needs to be addressed about Marikana: The fact that more than 34 people were killed by police on 16 August in circumstances that were, to put it in the mildest terms, highly questionable?
Commissions of...
Jane Duncan -
In the wake of the Marikana massacre, information is trickling into the public domain, which suggests that the police killing of workers was more premeditated than initially thought. Workers who were released from police custody have confirmed accounts of unjustified police violence against protestors, and these accounts have challenged the dominant narrative of the police having acted purely in self-defence.
Public opinion remains sharply divided about whether the police were...
Anna Majavu -
Recent political developments have thrown the treatment of Black refugees and migrant workers into the spotlight, as governments all over the world clamp down further on opportunities for people of colour to live and work outside the lands of their birth.
The Australian labour government recently moved to revive the “offshore processing centre” in the South Pacific island of Nauru that it shut down in 2007. There, it plans to dump boatloads of migrants that it captures at sea....
