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.
Laura Carlsen -
After curving through miles of Quebec’s countryside, the road to Montebello arrives at an enormous log cabin along the Ottawa River. Busloads of women pull up, from Rwanda, Colombia, the Congo, Mexico, Bosnia, Burma—women who think they can change the world.
The plan isn’t to change the whole world. Just the most violent and despicable parts, parts that many of them—too many—have experienced firsthand. They carry with them experiences they seek to erase forever,...
Richard Pithouse -
It’s now almost three months since David Kato, a former teacher and a leading Ugandan gay rights activist, was beaten to death in Mukono Town in Uganda. Kato was living in Johannesburg in the salad days of our new democracy and, inspired by the progress made here in recognising the legal right of gay people to an equal humanity, he became a key figure in the Ugandan movement when he returned home in 1998.
Homosexuality was first criminalised in Uganda in the 19th century...
Leonard Gentle -
The spat between Trevor Manuel and Jimmy Manyi has brought the question of racism to the fore. Manuel rightly attacked Manyi’s remarks about an “oversupply of coloureds in the Western Cape,” for being racist.
Of course, whilst this has been presented as a spat within the African National Congress (ANC), the real manipulator is the Democratic Alliance (DA) playing the race card on the eve of the local government elections in the Western Cape.
At the same time,...
Charlene Houston -
Since 1994 the making of history in South Africa has increasingly shifted from the academy into the public domain. Many histories are being produced through biographies and autobiographies. These histories offer an opportunity to find out more about our past and what meaning the past has for our future.
There are countless versions of history yet to emerge, each of these revealing different perspectives, questioning our beliefs and building our knowledge. Each adding pieces to the...
Glenn Ashton -
Namibia, Namaqualand and the Namib Desert are all named after the first people who lived in that area, the Nama. Where are the Nama today? The reality is that they have largely become forgotten bit players in a complex world.
The indigenous people of various nations, descended from traditional hunter-gatherer clans, are broadly referred to as the “first people” or “first nations.” These first nations generally still receive second-class treatment across the world....
Joseph Huff-Hannon -
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” — Mohandas Gandhi
The photograph is not easy to look at, and it’s not clear at first glance if Millicent Gaika, the woman in the photo, is dead or alive. Huge purple bruises surround both of her swollen eyes, and her neck is crisscrossed by a number of open gashes and scars. By now the bruises have subsided, some of the scars have healed, and in court testimony in November Millicent was...
