The bloodbath at Lonmin’s Marikana mine served to alert more of the public to aspects of feuding and tension that have been ongoing for years and not only at Lonmin and in the mining industry generally. In particular it has highlighted the stresses, strains and battles for power and position within the trade union movement and opened up a number of debates about the way forward.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 3 September 2012
The name Armstrong dominated the past week's headlines. Neil remained a public hero until his end. Lance’s drug infested career came home to roost. However the level of public support demonstrated for Lance Armstrong, as evidenced in website comments and polls, has been surprising.
Shuaib Manjra
Opinion | 29 August 2012
None of the big political parties are showing the kind of leadership that is needed when it comes to housing.
Nathan Geffen
Opinion | 29 August 2012
“Money, historic distrust, poor communication by and between different parties and the intervention of a small criminal element provided the volatile mix that exploded into violence....."
Terry Bell
Opinion | 27 August 2012
Given the amount of often dangerous nonsense being sprouted about "anarchists" and about Amcu allegedly being a newly formed union sponsored by everyone from the Chamber of Mines to BHP Billiton, I provide this historic record: an Inside Labour column published on February 19 this year with which nobody from the NUM or SACP disagreed.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 22 August 2012
A few weeks ago, the City of Cape Town was rocked by a spate of road blockades and other significant protests. Certain liberal NGOs joined the Democratic Alliance in condemning the protests claiming that they are violent and motivated by political party agendas.
Jared Sacks
Opinion | 22 August 2012
On the evening of Friday 3 August thousands of Khayelitsha residents were nearing the end of the long and difficult bus journey that city workers endure twice a day.
Gavin Silber
Opinion | 17 August 2012
The ongoing tension and violence at South Africa’s Lonmin platinum mine is a much more complex and messy business than a simple turf war between unions in the Rustenburg region of the country.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 17 August 2012
On 6 August, something extraordinary happened: NASA, the US space agency, landed a research craft called the Curiosity rover on Mars.
Jacques van Heerden
Opinion | 15 August 2012
In this week of Women’s Day, the 30th summer Olympiad is coming to an end. Over the past week and more, women and men from all backgrounds have displayed their sporting abilities, watched on television by more than 1 billion people around the world.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 13 August 2012
I live in a house in Nyanga township in Cape Town. But before 1994 I lived in Nyanga Bush in a tent, then a plastic shack, then a corrugated iron shack.
Vuyiseka Dubula
Opinion | 8 August 2012
That there is widespread and apparently growing cynicism within the labour movement about politics and politicians is perfectly understandable. Recent history provides many reasons, not least of them the corruption scandals, the circumstances surrounding the murder of Moss Phakoe and the ongoing school textbook crisis.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 8 August 2012
Mary Waters High School in Grahamstown has 1087 learners from poor families.
Doron Isaacs
Opinion | 6 August 2012
The controversial medical parole of former top cop, Jackie Selebi, has once again thrown into stark relief questions about kidney disease and treatment, questions that have long disturbed the labour movement.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 2 August 2012
The youth of Khayelitsha have been infected with a terrible "disease of gang violence"--as ‘Big Guy’, a radio presenter from Radio Zibonele called it--that is destroying tomorrow’s leaders. It is not hardened gangsters who are involved but children, some as young as 13.
Axolile Notywala
Opinion | 1 August 2012
Every finish line is the beginning of a race. I’m on the finish line of my gangster life and at the beginning of whole new life.
Mzi
Opinion | 1 August 2012