Minority rights Archives - Page 5 of 10

SPEECH: THE ACCOMMODATION OF CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY: A CORE CHALLENGE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY FOR SOUTH AFRICA, FOR EUROPE AND FOR THE WORLD

2018-03-24

Everywhere people are on the move.

One of the inescapable implications of globalisation is an enormous increase in the interaction between people from different backgrounds, cultures, languages and religions. The management of the resulting cultural, language and religious diversity will be one of this century’s greatest challenges.

ARTICLE: WHEN COURTS INTERVENE TO SAVE THE POOR

2017-11-22

The ongoing SASSA debacle is setting off unprecedented concerns, including but not limited to ineffectual leadership by the Minister of Social Development, allegations and counter-allegations between SASSA and SAPO as potential service provider, and crucially that of dragging the justice system into administering a failing political process.

ARTICLE: BLADE – AS SHARP AS EVER, AND JUST AS DANGEROUS

2017-11-03

In a recent memorial lecture to Oliver Tambo, the now former Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, lifted the veil on how the SACP sees and understands the source of the current state capture. The news headlines claim that at its core, his speech speaks of a country in the early phase of a securocracy. However, that is not at the heart of his speech. It is Nzimande’s first speech after being dismissed by Zuma, and he is doing his analysis of what went wrong, holding Tambo up as an example. This analysis brings some interesting, and some troubling, issues to the fore.

It is important to remember that the SACP leadership was instrumental in Polokwane in 2007 in toppling Mbeki and voting Zuma in. Zuma rewarded them for this with a disproportionate number of Cabinet posts. This allowed them to further the SACP and ANC’s National Democratic Revolution (NDR), among others by smuggling socialist elements into policy (such as the draft legislation on property rights).

SPEECH: ACCOMMODATING DIVERSITY IN A SHRINKING WORLD – THE MAIN CHALLENGE TO PEACE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

2017-04-03

It is a great honour for me to address you in this beautiful church. The Frauenkirche is a symbol of the victory of faith and peace over the brutality and destruction of war. It was rebuilt and reconsecrated after it had been destroyed in one of the most dreadful episodes in a dreadful war. It stands as an indomitable symbol of mankind’s ability to resurrect the best qualities of our civilization from the ruins and ashes of the worst.

ARTICLE: WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF SASSA AND OTHER’S LACK OF CAPACITY AND INCOMPETENCE?

2017-03-28

“This Court and the country as a whole are now confronted with a situation where the executive admitted that it is unable to perform its constitutional and statutory responsibilities to provide social assistance to its people. And in the deepest and most humiliating irony it places its hopes in a private corporate entity to get out of this situation”

– Justice Johan Froneman, the Black Sash pronunciation, March 17, 2017

“The problem is that Hlaudi on went a campaign to appoint freelancers on a permanent basis. Now we are left with an exorbitant wage bill… They do not know what to do with all these people, because they do not have the skills to be moved to critical areas such as television and sales”

– Unknown senior SABC employee, Rapport, March 19, 2017

ARTICLE: DIMINISHING THE POWER OF DISCRIMINATION

2017-03-20

The killing of 69 unarmed people in Sharpeville, South Africa, protesting apartheid pass laws on 21 March 1960, stirred the conscience of the world and saw the United Nations General Assembly adopt a Resolution to declare the day International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 1966.

ARTICLE: THE LAND QUESTION – BLACK UNITY AND NO COMPENSATION OR NON-RACIALISM AND CONSTITUTIONALISM?

2017-03-10

In his State of the Nation (SONA) appearance, President Zuma said “we had stated our intention of using the Expropriation Act, 1975 (Act 63 of 1975) to pursue land reform and land redistribution, in line with the Constitution” (my emphasis).

In debating this, the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Gugile Nkwinti, on 14 February, said that the Government will undertake a pre-colonial audit of land ownership and “(o)nce the audit has been completed, a single law should be developed to address the issue of land restitution without compensation. The necessary constitutional amendments should be undertaken to effect this process”.

At the launch of Operation Phakisa’s agriculture, land reform and rural development leg on 24 February, Zuma asked the following rhetorical (and nonsensical) question: “How are we going to achieve all the goals mentioned in the State of the Nation Address and all the laws and policies that we are busy amending to enable faster land reform, including land expropriation without compensation as provided for in the Constitution” (my emphasis). On 3 March, in his official opening of National House of Traditional Leaders, the President repeated the Nkwinti statement almost verbatim. Land reform “in line with the Constitution” has quickly become “land restitution without compensation”.

ARTICLE: SASSA – MUDDLING THROUGH AS THE POOR WAIT

2017-03-09

The last few days have witnessed a SASSA fiasco on an unprecedented scale. Outright lies, half-truths, resignation of key personnel and a fumbling, rumbling and grumbling Minister trying to save herself – and not the almost 17 million grant beneficiaries – was the order.

Wide media coverage delivering blow-by-blow accounts of the unfolding crisis has elicited outrage, yet President Zuma has the temerity to ask Ministers and their spokespersons to stop talking about social grants. In an interview from Jakarta, Indonesia, he said, “I think Ministers should stop talking, including their spokespersons. I think the point has been made. The less we talk, the better”. He added in response to public outrage and a call for Minister Bathabile Dlamini to be sacked that, “there are people speaking as if the date has come and passed and that the Department has failed and the Minister has failed. But the date has not come”. President Zuma, unlike the almost 17 million grant beneficiaries, is assured of where his next meal will come from. He is assured – as is evidenced by the State Capture Report – of wealth accumulated for himself and his family, but a key voting bloc remains in limbo.

ARTICLE: BITING THE BULLET WITH EDUCATION OUTCOMES

2017-01-10

The triumphant announcement of the 2016 matric results by the Minister and Department of Basic Education has subsequently been tempered as the harsh searchlight of reality has dawned.

View Archived Content

SPEECH: THE ACCOMMODATION OF CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY: A CORE CHALLENGE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY FOR SOUTH AFRICA, FOR EUROPE AND FOR THE WORLD

ARTICLE: WHEN COURTS INTERVENE TO SAVE THE POOR

ARTICLE: BLADE – AS SHARP AS EVER, AND JUST AS DANGEROUS

SPEECH: ACCOMMODATING DIVERSITY IN A SHRINKING WORLD – THE MAIN CHALLENGE TO PEACE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

ARTICLE: WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF SASSA AND OTHER’S LACK OF CAPACITY AND INCOMPETENCE?

ARTICLE: DIMINISHING THE POWER OF DISCRIMINATION

ARTICLE: THE LAND QUESTION – BLACK UNITY AND NO COMPENSATION OR NON-RACIALISM AND CONSTITUTIONALISM?

ARTICLE: SASSA – MUDDLING THROUGH AS THE POOR WAIT

ARTICLE: BITING THE BULLET WITH EDUCATION OUTCOMES

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