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?
Creamer Media's Polity speaks to Media Monitoring Africa's William Bird about the Protection of State Information Bill. Bird outlines the key purposes of the Bill and how the legislations sets out to achieve these.
One of the reasons there has been so much controversy around the Bill is because it has tried to deal with two kinds of information and confused their aims and objectives, argues Bird.
One of the most problematic aspects of the Bill is that instead of making access to information...
Jane Duncan -
Christopher McMichael is a PhD candidate in the politics department of Rhodes University. His research investigates the ways in which the international governing body of football, FIFA, used the security arrangements for the 2010 World Cup to cannibalise public funds to the benefit of the Association and its sponsors.
South Africa had to develop complex security plans and invest in state of the art security equipment to meet FIFA requirements, at huge expense to the taxpayer. Policing...
Dale T. McKinley -
I have no doubt that there are many people (besides myself) who have temporarily entertained the thought of publicly expressing their opposition to the marriage of certain acquaintances/ friends/family members at that point in those ceremonies when the officiator asks if there is ‘anyone who has reason … to speak or forever hold your peace’. Of course, regardless of how convinced we might be that the marriage is not a good idea such an inclination is quickly buried, our...
Dale T. McKinley -
Secrecy has always been one of the most dangerous enemies of democracy. Any meaningful democracy, by its very nature, demands openness, transparency and accountability - these are the currencies of democratic freedom. On the other hand secrecy, as human history has so often shown, is the currency of authoritarianism (whatever the ideological variety), of social, economic and political control by those for whom the securing and maintenance of power is the ultimate goal.
And yet, despite...
