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30 January 2012 17:23

What’s happening to South Africa now?

Swedish judge hits out at South Africa’s Secrecy Bill.

JOHANNESBURG - Sweden’s former Chancellor of Justice, Goran Lambertz, says the Swedes are very concerned about South Africa’s Protection of State Information Bill and he’s urged legislators to re-think it. 

“Sweden has been very close to South Africa and has been friends for many decades. But now there’s a lot of worry over the Bill. People are asking: ‘What is happening to South Africa now.’”

Lambertz, who was speaking at a seminar arranged by the Institute of Security Studies in Cape Town, says he’s concerned that the legislation in its current form would have a detrimental effect on journalists and whistleblowers. He says out of fear, journalists may not pursue important issues and investigations, and this would be a blow for democracy in South Africa.

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23 January 2012 07:13

Limpopo debacle hots up

Who can put the fires out?

Allegations of sabotage, mounting debt and widespread financial mismanagement….The debacle in Limpopo has spewed out a dangerous brew of bad money and political in-fighting.

Pravin Gordhan’s disclosure that Limpopo is facing a R2bn budget deficit and that it had failed to pay its suppliers, is not just a cold fact.

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14 January 2012 07:08

Scant hope for 3m young South Africans

Fewer men enrolled at universities.

It’s taken the UJ trampling tragedy to highlight how desperately students want to get into a good university and have a chance of a better life.

When you look beyond the pictures of thousands of people surging at the gates of the university, each hoping to secure a place, it’s no wonder that there was a rush.

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18 November 2011 12:26

Give a little more

And South Africa will be a better place.

This week some amazing South Africans were honoured for their work.

They often operate under the radar, not expecting any public acclaim. Yet the work they’re doing has cascaded across communities and touched the lives of people we seldom see.

It was hard not to return from the Inyathelo Philanthropy Awards ceremony in Cape Town without feeling warm and fuzzy. From the founder of Pep Stores, Renier van Rooyen, who has donated money for everything from soup kitchens to study grants to the woman who cashed in her R50,000 pension to start up a children’s home in rural Limpopo, philanthropists in South Africa are chipping away at poverty.

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31 October 2011 07:40

Funding for public health suffers as donors retreat

Threatening the recent progress in TB research.

CAPE TOWN - With tight economic times worldwide, developing countries are feeling the pinch. Donor funding has dropped, particularly from European Union countries.

This weekend, the Stop TB Partnership, an alliance of over 1 000 organisations fighting TB, and the Treatment Action Group (TAG), released a report showing that funding for TB had dipped worldwide.

“Recent progress in TB research is clearly threatened by stagnating funding," said TAG's executive director, Mark Harrington.

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