The Covid-19 pandemic and the responses to it, have highlighted as perhaps never before, the gross injustice and inequality that has been regarded as 'normal' until now. Time perhaps for the many to say to the few: Enough. It is a normal to which we shall never return.
July 13, 2020
Available online at Daily Maverick: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-13-reflections-of-a-wayward-boy-hairybacks-soutpiele-and-an-accidental-member-of-the-anc/amp/ Reflections of a wayward boy (4) My life changed during that single day in early 1961 when I returned to the Germiston Advocate newspaper office after attending a Group Areas Board hearing and making my first visit to a township where I met and interviewed people who were about […]
July 7, 2020
The Pretoria high court ruling that childcare centres, closed since March, may open immediately, but subject to safety requirements will not affect the overwhelming majority of such centres. Instead, it will exacerbate existing inequalities.
June 27, 2020
Covid-19 is being used by politicians the world over to try to hide the fact that the system they administer was responsible for the economic crisis now exacerbated by Covid-19. Time now to try a true democratic alternative?
June 12, 2020
The roots of the present lie in the past and it is essential that we havea clear idea of such roots if we are to understand where we are now — and why. Without such knowledge we can hardly plan clearly for the future.
May 19, 2020
The arrival of Covid-19 opened the door to rightwing political parties and has given some politicians the opportunity to exercise authoritarian tendencies. That is the view of leading Swedish epidemiologist Professor Johan Gieseck. In an interview last week he said the existence of the latest Corona virus had enabled politicians to “show decisiveness and strength”, […]
April 22, 2020
If, as governments and international in stitutions aroun d the world say, we are at war that is costing all economies dear, why is the historic means of funding such conflict — and financing the subsequent peace — not used? It seems to have been forgotten that wars and subsequent reconstruction were financed by taxing corporates and the rich.
April 17, 2020
Poverty is the biggest danger facing not just South Africa, but the world today. So it is perfectly understandable that poor people, oprdered to stay at home and socially distance, may see this as an invitation to starve, perhaps to death.
August 21, 2020
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