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?
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
Two successful bidders - SAAB and Ferrostaal – have provided damning evidence of corruption in South Africa’s arms deal.
As South Africa focuses on the unfolding evidence of possible corruption, we must however pause and ask how it came to be that we not only entered into deals with these companies, but how it was possible that the decision was taken to spend our nation’s money on the most expensive deals on offer during a period of excessive fiscal restraint. ...
Liepollo Pheko -
Given the democratic deficit in Swaziland, South Africa’s 2,4 billion Rand bailout to the kingdom throws open a question about the nature and exigency of neighbourliness within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and begs some comparisons with Europe’s problem child Greece.
Questions have been raised about the extent to which South Africa ought to have taken responsibility for bailing out Swaziland in the midst of service delivery protests, wage strikes and...
Saliem Fakir -
The debate on foreign direct investment (FDI) follows the same superficial rhetoric that gathers around the debate on nationalisation.
This issue has gathered somewhat of a storm following Walmart’s acquisition of Massmart. The South African government has appealed the Competition Tribunal’s decision to grant the merger on what it perceives to be a deal on the cheap.
It wants a more expansive commitment from Walmart so that the merger leads to deep roots rather than shallow...
Richard Pithouse -
Courage...is a local virtue. It partakes of the morality of the place. - Alain Badiou
There is no denying the import of the very public dramas that play out in the sphere of elite politics. Jacob Zuma's decision on how to respond to Thuli Madonsela's report will certainly have some consequence in shaping the trajectory of our increasingly compromised democracy. But politics is about force and reason and reason on its own is seldom a sufficient check on either the construction or...
Saliem Fakir -
A while back, Deputy Minister of Transport, Jeremy Cronin penned a column in Umsenbenzi, the online publication of the South African Communist Party, where he wrote that perhaps we should be thinking about the ‘socialisation’ of wealth, rather than the nationalisation of assets.
Cronin was positing the idea that the nationalisation of assets, for all intents and purposes, is not the only device for dealing with income inequality, unemployment and widespread poverty. He...
Glenn Ashton -
The technocrats are on the ascent and nuclear power is yet again on the cards for South Africa. How has the moratorium of 2008 been reversed? How can nuclear power, which was then considered an unaffordable option, suddenly have become affordable again? This is a story with many twists and turns.
The nuclear lobby is, like any major industry, well resourced. It has consistently managed to project positions, which appear logical and reasonable – that nuclear power is safe, reduces...
