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?
Mandisi Majavu -
Avon Barksdale, a fictional character in The Wire, an American television series, often uses tautological phrases like “the game is the game” to signify the fact that change within societal institutions is not brought about by sudden, random forces. The tautology simultaneously serves as a reminder to all the players in “the game” that individual players do not have the power to change institutions or “the game”, as it were. In fact individuals who attempt...
Jane Duncan -
In the wake of the Marikana massacre, information is trickling into the public domain, which suggests that the police killing of workers was more premeditated than initially thought. Workers who were released from police custody have confirmed accounts of unjustified police violence against protestors, and these accounts have challenged the dominant narrative of the police having acted purely in self-defence.
Public opinion remains sharply divided about whether the police were...
"South Africa is a complete global outlier in terms of its inequality and how inequality has been persistent over time," says Sandeep Mahajan, World Bank lead economist for South Africa. The bank has developed a Human Opportunity Index, which it has started applying for the first time in the country. According to the Word Bank, the factor that matters most in a child's ability to advance in South Africa is his/her "location" with respect to access to opportunities and...
Leonard Gentle -
“What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?” the famous injunction by Trinidadian socialist writer, C.L.R James, in his book Beyond a Boundary, widely regarded as the best work of social analysis of sport ever, may well be apt in the case of media coverage here in South Africa on the death of Basil D’Oliviera.
Tributes were confined to the sports pages where everyone picked up on the significance of the D’Oliviera affair, which led to the cancellation...
As South Africa celebrates the 93rd birthday of Nelson Mandela, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now speaks with Ronnie Kasrils, who was on the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress for 20 years.
Kasrils also served as Minister for Intelligence Services from 2004 to 2008.
He recently published a new book "The Unlikely Secret Agent," about his late wife Eleanor, a Scottish South African anti-apartheid activist.
Fazila Farouk -
Somewhat hidden from the spotlight this year, a time-honoured staple on the national calendar ran almost parallel to the world’s biggest soccer tournament. From the 20th of June to the 4th of July, the Grahamstown National Arts Festival (NAF) held its annual two-week programme of drama, music, dance and fine art, as it has done since 1974.
Artistic expression and its appreciation are vital to the spice of life and the NAF offered a well-timed sojourn from a nation engulfed by...
