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?
Dale T. McKinley -
Amongst its many other attributes, South Africa could arguably be called the Commission capital of the world.
While there is no official list of how many Commissions of Inquiry there have been in the 20 years since 1994, suffice to say that the numbers are impressive. In the last 14 years alone there have been no less than 10 national-level, high profile Commissions of Inquiry - five of which have yet to run their course - accompanied by scores of others emanating from the executives and...
Richard Pithouse -
In colonial wars the occupying power invariably reaches a point where it has to acknowledge that its true enemy is not a minority - devil worshipers, communists, fanatics or terrorists - subject to external and evil manipulation, but the people as a whole. Once this point is reached every colonised person is taken as a potential combatant and the neighbourhood and the home are cast as legitimate sites of combat.
This is the moment when liberal paternalism breaks down.
From its first...
Gillian Schutte -
This women’s month marks two years since the Marikana massacre. The widows of the workers killed by the South African Police Service in 2012 have since received their deceased husband’s provident fund dues, but still wait for justice whilst the media and public attention has long since transferred from their plight to the Farlam Commission.
The focus recently has been on the prolonged strike action on the Platinum belt as well as Mr X’s sensational testimony alleging that...
Mohamed Motala -
In recent years, strikes in South Africa have become turbulent. Today the Farlam Commission is hearing evidence of the 2012 strike on the platinum belt that was characterised by extreme use of violence on all sides. Mining companies, Lonmin, AngloPlat and Implats, assisted by the South African police, displayed aggressive behaviour towards striking mineworkers, which resulted in an elaborate show of force culminating in the biggest post-apartheid massacre in the history of South Africa....
Prof. Patrick Bond of the Centre For Civil Society speaks to The Real News Network about the end of the platinum belt strike and its implications for the future of labour in South Africa. He argues that the economy is about to formally go into a recession and that rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch’s recent downgrading of South Africa will likely lead to a great deal of posturing about the need to discipline labour and relax some of the gains that labour has won,...
Richard Pithouse -
The massacre on 16 August 2012, and the events that followed it, including the grinding strike that has just been concluded, have inscribed Marikana into our history. The name Marikana and the date 16 August have been carved into our history with the same brutality, blood and resolve that have shaped so many of the events that have brought us to where we are.
Around the world both the massacre and the long and bitter strike have often been decisive turning points in societies. From Algeria...
