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?
Glenn Ashton -
At Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Governance, a study group is arguing that the media in Africa doesn’t foster good governance, contending that Africa's Fourth Estate doesn't function.
The global nature of the problem raises some questions about why the Kennedy School of Governance has chosen to make an example of Africa.
After all, the American media practically signed, sealed and delivered the public consensus needed for President George W. Bush to invade...
Abahlali BaseMjondolo tell the story of strife in South Africa's informal settlements, which for the best part has turned into a struggle against the democratically elected government, in this creatively produced and touching video clip. For the community featured in this video, struggling against government-led evictions has become a common feature of their lives.
Saliem Fakir -
First came Zuma, which seemed to scare a lot of people, then the atrocious matric results, then Eskom, the slow disappearance of the Scorpions, the Zimbabwe crisis, then the disgraceful saga at the SABC, the anarchy at the ANC Youth League conference, racism at Free State university, the food crisis and now xenophobia.
There are a few other issues not worth adding to this litany as the point has been made. Everywhere we look is a seemingly unending verve of one crisis after another....
Ibrahim Steyn -
Democracy is often presented as an unproblematic concept ubiquitously associated with political competition between rival parties or candidates. Simply put, it’s about people’s ability to elect a political regime or leaders of their choice.
Such a neutral definition of democracy obscures issues of power and vested interests. Africa’s political elite, for example, have been perpetuating a client-patron model of politics inherited from their colonial predecessors. This has...
Charlene Houston -
The state of our nation is the outcome of a multidimensional struggle. The tussle between the polluters and the sick; between the under-paid and the over-paid; between the owners of wealth and producers of goods; between the greedy and the hungry, between people and corporations; between developed and under-developed nations – all culminate to create our democratic space for engagement.
As democratic institutions, governments find themselves in a tug of war between competing...
Fazila Farouk -
The anniversary of South Africa’s decade of democracy signalled a turning point in the way many South Africans view this country.
Since then we’ve been treated to a gaggle of critiques measuring the gains of our democracy.
The overall conclusion has been that it was a decade of poor gains. A decade of missed opportunities. A decade marked by a paucity of ideas about how to achieve real transformation, and most alarming of all, a decade of denial.
Extreme denial...
