3 January 2018 - Given the resolution taken at the ANC’s national conference on pushing for ‘expropriation without compensation’, it was fitting that The Star ended the year with Lisa Del Grande’s most interesting contribution on land reform.
Latest from the IRR
Deep and dangerous: Health and safety in our mines - IRR Report
15 December 2017 - The latest @Liberty report from the IRR (Institute of Race Relations) – “Deep and Dangerous: Health and Safety in Our Mines” – seeks to explain the current safety and health rules and explore the ways in which they are being implemented.
8 December 2017 - Ernest Hemingway might have been writing about Eskom’s decline when he explained how bankruptcy happens. ‘Two ways … Gradually and then suddenly’, he wrote in one of his more obscure novels (‘The Sun Also Rises’) in 1926.
7 December 2017 - Many analysts say that South Africa is in serious trouble, but your organisation has been saying that things are not that bad. What is the truth?
6 December 2017 - Mr Maimane went on to suggest that the most important difference between the DA and the African National Congress (ANC) was that the DA “will be able to actually implement these policies”. He has got this exactly back to front. In the event that he becomes the next leader of the ANC, Mr Ramaphosa is far more likely to be able to implement growth (and other) policies than the DA. This is for the simple reason that an ANC led by Mr Ramaphosa is much more likely to win the 2019 national election than is the DA.
5 December 2017 - The reluctance to come out is a rational response to the community's exposure to frightening levels of violence and abuse.
The Eastern Cape is the most homophobic province - IRR report
5 December 2017 - Violence against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community is most common in the Eastern Cape Province. This is one of the findings in the IRR’s November 2017 Fast Facts report.
3 December 2017- Mr Maimane went on to suggest that the most important difference between the DA and the African National Congress (ANC) was that the DA "will be able to actually implement these policies". He has got this exactly back to front. In the event that he becomes the next leader of the ANC, Mr Ramaphosa is far more likely to be able to implement growth (and other) policies than the DA. This is for the simple reason that an ANC led by Mr Ramaphosa is much more likely to win the 2019 national election than is the DA.
30 November 2017 - The ANC’s website describes him as “one of the key founding fathers of South Africa’s liberation and constitutional democracy. The celebrations will be used to draw lessons from his life and understand the qualities that made him succeed in uniting the ANC.”2.
The ANC knows very well what needs to be done to avoid junk status. For many years, however – and especially in the past 11 months, when the threat of downgrades has been most acute – it has been doing the opposite. So much so, in fact, that it seems to have been inviting junk status.
29 November 2017 - The ANC conference will not on its own predetermine what might appear to be the obvious shape of things to come
The prioritisation of the ownership issue sidelines all the other empowerment channels that could make an impact
Since the African National Congress came to power in 1994, unemployment (on the expanded definition) has risen from 3.67 million to 9.30 million. To issue a report 23 years later blaming colonialism and apartheid for this state of affairs no doubt satisfies the needs of political correctness, but it is irrational.
The latest estimations based on 74% of branch general meeting nominations place Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in the lead for the ANC presidency. Yet, the race is still too close to call, says the IRR's Frans Cronje.
Following the white paper, the department has already invited nominations for seven new committees to help implement NHI. These will deal with tertiary services, training and development, pricing, benefits, the consolidation of financing, and technology. There will also be a national health commission.
The government is pressing ahead with implementing the National Health Insurance (NHI) proposal even though the state still does not know how much the new system will cost or how it can be financed. The Department of Health (DoH) seems determined to proceed by trial-and-error, irrespective of the massive damage that is likely to result.
Some in the media still describe the DA as “white” or “perceived as white”. The narrative didn’t change after most of the Coloured community in the Cape jettisoned the ANC for the DA. The Indian community nationally joined them. What the criticism means is that “black” really just means “African”.
Founded in 1929, the IRR is but two years away from celebrating its 90th birthday. Throughout its history, the organisation has fought racial discrimination and promoted the principle of equality before the law. It has also argued that promotions and appointments should be made on merit rather than on racial grounds. It has also applied these principles in its own operations.
With the ANC's elective conference approaching, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma may have a majority of the league votes. To be sure of victory, Cyril Ramaphosa must enter the conference with a comfortable branch majority,
South Africa’s employment woes set to continue – IRR report
The changing structure of South Africa’s labour market means the country is unlikely to see any reduction in its high levels of unemployment. This is one of the key findings of the latest Fast Facts report published by the IRR.
Opposition politics had a perception problem right from the start in democratic South Africa. Understandably, it is harder to tell which side of history you are on when you are in opposition to a majority government following hundreds of years of a privileged minority franchise. To be in opposition was to be in opposition to the liberators.
It takes so little to unmask Mmusi Maimane’s new policy framework as a poorly thought-through imitation of that of the ANC that the DA must be quite confident that President Zuma’s camp will win the ANC’s end-of-year leadership race
Arguably, however, it has undermined that system in that the sentences imposed are heavier than the crime itself warrants. One of the men, Theo Martins Jackson, was given a sentence of 19 years' imprisonment, of which five were suspended, so that his effective sentence is 14 years. The other, Willem Oosthuizen, was given 16 years of which five were suspended, leaving an effective sentence of 11 years.
There is a myth held by some, who try to make racial identity compatible with the idea of self-definition, that racial identity is acceptable so long as individuals can define blackness* for themselves. This view is nonsensical. But some liberals cling to it because they wish to bridge the gulf between individuality and racial identity; either because race is an important part of their own identity or because it is an important part of the electorate’s identity.
On this projection, public debt will soon have quintupled from the R627bn at which it stood in 2008/9, before the start of the Zuma presidency.
Greek mathematician Archimedes has variably been quoted as having said: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”
The suspension of face-to-face classes excluded the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Graduate School of Business. But for the rest “blended learning models would be implemented to allow for teaching off campus.”
Giving the provincial head final authority over the admission of pupils to public schools, as well as the power to approve such schools' language policies, are among the other proposals in the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, which is open for public comment until 10th November.
There is something pathetic about the reaction of his party to President Jacob Zuma's cabinet reshuffle last week. The secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC), Gwede Mantashe, said it was "unfortunate" that the party had not been given prior notice. The move was a formula for instability, would deepen divisions, undo the alliance, etc.
The same forces that are sinking the Zupta project will in a similar fashion save the mining sector. At the heart of it are the country’s strong institutions. Coleman alluded to these when he praised SA’s "sound Constitution (and) strong judiciary" and referred to the unity on the part of business, labour and civil society.