Browsing All Posts published on »January, 2017«

Corporal punishment: let’s learn from history

January 27, 2017

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There is nothing new in the still raging debate in South Africa about corporal punishment. During the great student rebellions in 1976, there was widespread rejection of corporal punishment that echoed the approach of the Roman scholar, Quintillian. More than 2 000 years ago, Quintillian argued that corporal punishment was fit only for slaves.

A luta continua — for 22 years

January 27, 2017

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A labour dispute at the then Midrand municipality in 1994 has rumbled on for 22 years and has again, this year, come to the fore. In the process it has thrown into sharp focus some serious problems facing the South African labour movement.

Ideal refuge for a kleptocrat

January 24, 2017

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Given reports over the years of the dictatorial behaviour of The Gambia's president, Yahya Jammeh, of the use by his security forces of assassination and torture, along with his apparently liberal access to the national treasury, he has perhaps found, in Equatorial Guinea, his ideal refuge.

Davos: a far cry from responsive & responsible leadership

January 22, 2017

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The world’s most expensive and probably most successful public relations exercise concluded in Switzerland this week: the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos. But this private club of some of the richest men in the world is responsible for the very ills they claim to be trying to remedy.

Resilence amid the doom & gloom

January 16, 2017

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The almost meaningless display of verbal pyrotechnics that annually accompanies South Africa’s secondary school matriculation results is thankfully behind us. But the reality of a potential 700 000-plus school leaving job seekers is most definitely not. Along with double that number who dropped out before Grade 12, they highlight the most volatile element in the […]

The need for responsible journalism

January 5, 2017

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As 2017 gets underway, there is, as perhaps never before, the need for responsible journalism; journalism that presents the facts and seeks out the truth; journalism on which the public at large can rely and that reveals, without fear or favour, verified and verifiable information that is in the public interest.