Showing category "Opinion and analysis" (Show all posts)
South
Africa came under extreme international criticism in 2008, when over 60
people were killed and over 600 wounded during the xenophobia attacks
in 2008. Civil rights groups have warned that the country is
“dangerously close to boiling point”.
This
is a result of the xenophobic attacks on Somali shopkeepers and other
foreigners in Cape Town and the Free State this past week. The director
of Passop- People against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty- Braam
Hanekom has blamed the a... Continue reading ...
Issue of the week: A call to ban the Tender System
Stories of tender irregularities and scandals are nothing new to the South African Corporate context, but a more recent and a more shocking story of tender irregularities in the government is the government’s failure to deliver textbooks in Limpopo. According to the released news report, the Department of Education in Limpopo gave out a tender to a company the news report calls the “big wigs” without following procedural regulations and as far as I’m concerned that i... Continue reading ...
Issue of the Week: SA Education System Failing the Youth.
A recent study conducted by a South African
survey showed that the country invests more money into public education than any other emerging market, yet we still have high levels of illiteracy.
It is no doubt that the South African
education system is a disgrace and a scandal, a scandal in sense that we are a
country that seems to not take education very seriously.
If one can look at countries such as Zimbabwe
and Tanzania, they have excellent learning systems and i... Continue reading ...
Issue of the Week: The Lost Generation
The 16th of June 1976 was a year whereby young black South Africans took to the streets of Soweto in protest against the bantu education system that was orchestrated by the Apartheid government during the tyrant years of severe segregation. The students took to the streets in the morning of the 16th of June 1976 in protest against the then government’s decision to change the official language of learning to Afrikaans.
Such radical action from the youth symbolised the i... Continue reading ...
Time to stop the SOPA
On this day that many of our fellow media companies in America protest the proposed passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), we at Global Edge Media (GEM) in South Africa would like to add our voice to those of Wikipedia, Google and Wordpress, to name but a few, who openly oppose the passing of such a bill. As servants of the people, with a duty to provide the information that they, the people, seek we must do all we can to stop the interference of bodies, whether political or not, from ... Continue reading ...
Standing against the Secrecy bill
“Everything secret
degenerates, even the administration of justice, nothing is safe that does not
show it can bear discussion and publicity” Lord Acton
Today marks another milestone in the ongoing fight against
the proposed Protection of Information Bill. The bill, first tabled a couple of
months ago as a means of protecting information the state sees as confidential
and classified in the interest of state security, has been highly controversial with critics
calling is undemocratic and ... Continue reading ...
Canvassing the canvasser
It's student elections time at the University of Johannesburg and we here at GEM decided to exercise our democratic right to vote. So with a black mark on our thumb and a spring in our step we arrived at the Kingsway campus to monitor the different parties campaign objectives and information booths. Taking the position of a first year with no prior knowledge of student politics or SRC structures we asked all the questions and summarised the good, the bad and the ugly about each party and ... Continue reading ...
Diary of an English Voortrekker
This is the diary of an englishman's travels to the Voortrekker monument in Pretoria 9:33 Arrived at the monument to the sight of many chinese tourists, it's funny how they are everywhere even in Pretoria. 9:36 Saw the 5 trees and rock pile memorial. The 5 trees were brought to the area from the 4 provinces and south west africa during the dedication of the building in 1949. 9:42 The entrance to the monumentr proper reads " architect: gerard moerdyk, completed 1949, cornerstone laid by the desc... Continue reading ...
Struggling to find a struggle.
Weighed under the pressure of a turbulent and difficult past the youth of today face a real crisis of how to leave their legacy on the blood stained pages of South African history.
South Africa is unique in it's past, a past that reflects inequality at it's worst. The policy of Apartheid was for many black citizens, and white sympathisers, of South Africa a hard rock that was constantly being pushed against, they labelled their efforts "The Struggle". For those who lived and died for the f... Continue reading ...
Malema’s powerful friends.
Photo: News24
ANC youth league president Julius Malema is not one to shy away from the media; however, he never gets in ‘trouble’. For the average Joe paying a fine of more than R500 is expensive-but for Malema R100 000 fines do not impact on his back account. One has to ask who are these friends that constantly keep him out of the mud?
The youth league president is controversial himself, but behind every person is a team of people who build him up to be that, perhaps even pro... Continue reading ...
Gautrain is its own worst enemy.
Image: Gautrain website.
It is a well known fact that Johannesburg is a world class city, however, its transport systems did not match up. In 2000 Government took initiative and invested billions of rands to fund infrastructure projects i.e. the Gautrain. This state of the art rail network fares start from R19 to R46 a ticket depending on where you are going.
The Gautrains slogan is ‘For people on the move’ One has to ask who are these people? Government says it’s a form of pu... ? ? Continue reading ...
Hate speech or freedom of expression?
Where ever you turn; you are bombarded by actor, author, ex-SA fm talk show presenter and Sowetan newspaper columist Eric Miyeni’s article entitled "Haffajee does it for white masters". Whether this is an alleged attack on City Press editor-in-chief Feral Haffajee on behalf of Julius Malema because Haffajee exposed Malema's finances, or is simply freedom of expression.
Chapter 2 of the Constitution contains the Bill of rights (1996); these are rights that every citizen has available ... ? Continue reading ...
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