Originally published at The South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS) In the last days of June, Nkululeko Gwala was assassinated in Cato Crest - a shack settlement in Durban that is in the process of being upgraded with formal housing. Just over three...
municipal
People’s Assembly Land, Race and Nation Conference declaration
People’s Assembly Land, Race and Nation Conference 22 June 2013 Declaration Preamble Nearly twenty years after the end of apartheid, the 1913 Natives’ Land Act continues to haunt the South African countryside. The land question, which was so central to the struggle...
Q & A with Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi
Interview with Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, Minister of Health Part 1 Amandla!: How did you became politicised? Aaron Motsoaledi: I was born into a family of activists. Elias Motsoaledi, one of the Rivonia trialists, is my uncle. I became active in boarding school...
Defend our right to strike! | by Roger Ronnie
The South African Constitution proclaims that everyone has the right to strike. The entrenchment of this right was bought at a high cost by the majority of working men and women through, amongst others, the use of the strike weapon as a measure of last resort in...
Africa’s Biggest Landfill Site: The Case Of Bisasar Road | by Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife
Bisasar Road is Africa’s largest landfill site, and one of only three landfill sites in Durban with a full permit. It was opened for business in 1980 under South Africa’s apartheid regime. The Group Areas Act, a crucial pillar of the segregation agenda, meant that...
Doing dirty work, exposing dirty tricks
Xolani is a municipal worker in Johannesburg, doing dirty, hard, but socially necessary labour for which he is paid the negotiated minimum of R4 330.30 a month. He is an example of one of thousands of workers in similar positions in local government service in towns...
Mozambique – Can Frelimo remain the predominant party? – by Joe Hanlon
Mozambique seems likely to remain a predominant party state for the foreseeable future. The ruling party Frelimo is still relatively popular and inclusive, while the opposition remains marginal. Frelimo’s power comes from its: •ability to stay united and co-opt...
Interview: Alderman Marion Nieuwoudt, City of Cape Town
Special Ratings Areas (SRAs) are areas in which residents pay extra rates for organizing extra services. If initiators get majority support from 50+1% of the rate paying property owners, all must pay. The rates are collected by the municipality and then paid back to...
Cape Town – The Mother City of Inequality
By Dick ForslundThe City of Cape Town is proudly proclaimed in travel brochures as the Mother City – a place of great historical importance, the mother which welcomed a free Nelson Mandela. There is tarnish on this hallowed image – that of a city nibbling away at the...



