Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete acted with lethal speed following Mdantsane’s appeal for law and order. Peter Dickson reports Mdantsane is a bleak sprawl of humanity hugging the outskirts of East London, gripped by terror each night. Once the relentless target of Ciskei strongman Lennox Sebe’s green-bereted goon squads, it now reels under […]
Marianne Merten Men are mobilising for women’s rights and condemning violence against women. “It’s about changing men’s attitudes and belief systems,” says project co-ordinator of the Five in Six Project, Charles Maisel. The name is based on a 1993 research finding – when it was launched – that one man in six is abusive or […]
Heather Hogan Less than half of all crimes reported result in prosecution, while three-quarters of crimes prosecuted result in a conviction. According to the Nedcor/Institute for Security Studies Crime Index update, there are two factors by which the performance of the criminal justice system can be judged. One is the number of cases solved sufficiently […]
Jonathan Watts in Tokyo Robo-mania is reaching a new pitch in Japan as technological advances, economic necessity and cultural change drive automatons out of the factory and into people’s day-to-day lives. For decades Japan has been seen as the robot capital of the world. Despite its relatively small size, the country has 58% of the […]
Friday night Charl Blignaut The fact that winter was discernibly lifting wasn’t the only reason I found myself heading back down End Street and up Jeppe Street in Johannesburg for the opening of Club Reality a few Friday nights ago. Nostalgia had something to do with it too. Certainly, it wasn’t the flyer advertising a […]
Philippa Garson Class Struggle A recent chat with a high school principal elicited some long-overdue reflections on the nature of “the school” as an institution. Clearly a man of vision and independent thought, this principal was lamenting the fact that schools have changed so little since he was a spotty scholar 20 years ago. Surely […]
Wally Mbhele Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana failed to address the tension between the government and public sector unions over the wage negotiations deadlock when he spoke at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) special congress on Thursday. Mdladlana’s approach was a departure from the hardline position that has been taken by a […]
Scotch Tagwireyi The University of the Witwatersrand is being taken to the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) by eight former employees who claim they were unfairly dismissed last month. The dismissed workers from the catering, grounds and academic departments were accused of defrauding the university of more than R595 177. According to the […]
Howard Barrell When hundreds of thousands of civil servants join marches and work stoppages next Tuesday, the country could witness the broadest coalition of labour traditions ever to combine in an industrial dispute on South African soil. Public servants of all races, language groups and political persuasions are expected to be involved in the protests, […]
Howard Barrell Over a Barrel On my way to work each morning, I pass a set of traffic lights in an outlying Cape Town suburb at which about 50 men offer themselves, often pleading, for any kind of work at almost any rate of pay. Their daily horror, like that of the jobless across the […]