Today In Fact, 22 October
The end of the World was supposed to happen today in 1844. The followers of…
Unification is slow and difficult
It is 22 years since the reunification of Germany, just under 20 years since South…
Welfare and the Debt Trap
South Africa has built proportionately the world’s biggest welfare state in just 20 years. We’ve…
Globalisation – confounded by success
We humans are a funny lot. Faced with potential catastrophe, we fret that the sky…
Families Foundering in SA
Despite the fairly large drop in crime rates since 1994 (this year’s upward blip notwithstanding),…
Ubuntu Gone Wrong
I have been accused (and rightly so, to some extent) of being too pro-Africa, without…
20 years of transformation
If the chattering classes think the ANC will be cut down to size next year,…
Public schools get better
[Image above courtesy GeoffreyWhiteway/Freerangestock.com] [symple_divider style=”fadeout” margin_top=”20px” margin_bottom=”20px”] It’s almost a standard shibboleth that how…
The SANDF – leaner, but not meaner…
As the SANDF readies for fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, ghosts…
Schools – Clarity Begins at Home
Gillian Godsell wonders why we swoon before every visiting “expert” with an education idea picked…
SA’s glass – half full or half empty?
How we see this country’s progress and government’s performance probably has more to do with…
Small steps, local solutions for SA Education
It is hard to understand why every visiting ‘expert’ with an education idea from Mumbai,…
Welfare that Drives Growth
“It’s about the economy, stupid”, was the campaign refrain of Bill Clinton’s election team in…
Time for SA’s charter schools
We’ve lived so long under strong state control of our lives – from apartheid’s selfish…
Jobs, and Joblessness, Growing
Last week’s announcement that unemployment has reached a new high of more than 25% has…
Justice Not Always (colour) Blind
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has caused a proper rumpus with his intemperate comments on racial…
Passing the SME buck
South Africans seem almost schizophrenic about the value of small business for economic growth. On…
Land Restitution Gets Better
Last month brought the centenary of the 1913 Land Act that racially determined who may…
Limits to Suburbia
South African living conditions are improving so fundamentally and fast that we might think this…
The NDP and Asking for the Moon
It is generally wise to beware of “the big plan”. This past century has seem…
Lose Kruger, Lose Them All
South Africa is in a low-intensity war in the Kruger National Park. If it loses…
Perceptions of SA versus reality
There is solace found in revelling in anxiety about how society is falling apart, especially…
We’re not THAT corrupt. Maybe.
With Nkandla-gate, Gupta-gate, and daily reports of tender fraud and jobs for pals, is South…
Race Trumps Views
Try as we might, it is difficult to pigeonhole South Africans into one or another…
SA’s Handheld Revolution
The last 40 years have seen improvements in many of the ways we live and…
The successful limits of BEE
Impatience with improving the economic lot of black South Africans is understandable, given the relative…
W(h)ither the whites?
The 1994 transition liberated black South Africans from oppression, but also liberated whites, writes Frans…
Sadtu’s Darkening Horizon
These are not salad days for the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), largest teacher union…
Time for People’s Capitalism
With 16 million people on state grants this year, our welfare net is more extensive…
Trends of progress to cheer SA
To bookend the Freedom Day weekend a fortnight back, The Star newspaper put out one of…
Twisting history harms democracy
The way some have it, you’d think our history was a simple Good versus Evil…
Looking to the EU for inspiration. Eh?
It used to be easier for people rather than goods to cross borders and now…
The Poor Back in their Place
It’s tough being poor at the best of times. It’s even tougher when your rights…
Still the city of gold
Given its climate, particular racial make-up and associated politics, the Western Cape might be thought…
Pips begin to squeak
Government has real service delivery success in things like healthcare provision to the poorest, along…