SA’s unemployment is a national disgrace
A quarter century of failed economic policies tipped South Africa over the brink when Covid-19 hit. There is a solution, if the government is prepared to mobilise its resources.
Ruling deals crushing blow to zero-hours contracts
Ferrero factory workers have won the first battle in what might become one of South Africa’s next wars on casual and precarious work.
How was Italy devastated by Covid-19?
Two decades of eroded national health expenditure and privatisation played a role in the country’s struggle with the virus. Now, citizens demand answers in the face of a second wave of infections.
Ordinary South Africans define a decent life
Arbitrary statistical tools for defining poverty – including the outmoded $1-a-day measure – are being overturned by models of dignity created by groups around the country.
Text Messages | Final words
Eulogies and tributes cement the deceased’s better attributes in the minds of those who remain but on the odd occasion, such as the sendoffs for Caesar and Diana, are used to further a cause.
Editor's Pick
Long Read | Part three: The start of CSA’s downfall
An embattled Cricket South Africa has been shooting itself in the foot whenever it tried to take a step in the right direction. Can the organisation be saved from itself?
Fears grow for Eritrean refugees’ safety in Tigray
Fighting in the north of Ethiopia has resulted in nearly 100 000 Eritrean refugees being caught in the crossfire and their access to humanitarian aid cut off.
Constitutional Court protects domestic workers
The court has ruled that these employees can claim from the Compensation Fund if injured while on duty. The ground-breaking judgment also ensures domestic workers can apply retrospectively.
Trading on the wrong side of white for 100 years
A shop in Dullstroom on the Highveld in Mpumalanga survived a depression and a government set on pushing it off its land. Then a tornado hit and the town showed its true colour.
The Eastern Cape is South Africa’s land of hunger
Jobless people in the country’s most impoverished province join the growing social grant queues before dawn on empty stomachs, having run out of food for the month.
The world’s most neglected conflict
This has been the bloodiest year of Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis, leading to the loss of many more lives. Cameroonians are now using #EndAnglophoneCrisis to alert the world to the separatist war.
Podcasts
Mixtape 31: Planet for sale
There are songs for every planet on this alternative playlist for an imaginary trek through the solar system.
S3 Episode 11: Radioactive Joburg | Left after Trump
South Africa’s mineral wealth has been built on the backs of Black people. Damaging mining practices still take their toll on people’s health. Also, is it now payback time to the Left for Joe Biden?
Mixtape 30: Intergalactic
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on because Charles Leonard is taking you on a musical trip into outer space.
COVID-19
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News
Airport Park residents want their homes back
Those illegally evicted from an East London shack settlement are sceptical that the government will return their belongings and abide by a court order to rebuild their houses.
Threat to early childhood development sector
A number of early childhood development centres have been forced to close because of Covid-19, resulting in a bleak present and future for the many children who depend on them.
Naledi by-election was also a vote on Eskom
Some residents in the Soweto township of Naledi refused to vote in their by-election because they had not had electricity for seven months, which affected their health and livelihood.
Truda forces protesters into court
In this third part of our story on a strike at an Eastern Cape factory, the food giant’s application for contempt of an interim interdict includes a prison sentence request for protest leaders.
Workers at the mercy of bosses and the government
Some employees received their full salaries during lockdown whereas others got no pay. Is the ability to survive during a crisis dependent on having a sympathetic boss and state?
Xolobeni activist receives death threat
In an environment where activism against mining is becoming increasingly deadly, Nonhle Mbuthuma’s life may be at risk.
PE Bridgestone workers reject retirement packages
The company is among many that have retrenched workers citing financial struggles because of Covid-19. But a union claims the retrenchments have been in the pipeline for a decade.
We live in raw sewage, say PE residents
The municipality continues to ignore a sewerage pipe in Izinyoka township that keeps bursting despite residents logging repair requests. Now the effluent is beginning to affect their health.
Decades-long battle for South African citizenship
Two brothers born in South Africa to Angolan refugees still face an uphill battle for citizenship despite a high court order. The matter is now in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Features
From the Archive | The Detroit workers’ rebellion
In the late 1960s, US automotive workers held massive protests for better conditions. Out of this, the radical newspaper Inner City Voice emerged, channelling the insurgent view.
New Books | Media in Postapartheid South Africa
The media provides a window into the transition from a society organised around apartheid and opposition to it to an individualist, capitalist, consumerist and aspirational reality.
Cartoon | Small man syndrome
Jacob Zuma’s moral stature was never very pronounced, but the cowardice and disrespect he has shown towards Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has diminished it even further.
The burden of Durban’s porters may get heavier
Porters in Durban work hard and for very little pay, without any support. Now, the city is set on moving them to a part of town where their earning potential will be diminished.
Photo Essay | A thousand-kilometre bicycle journey
After losing his job during Europe’s first lockdown, an Italian living in London desperate to visit his family pedalled across the continent, documenting the isolation of his travels.
Culture
Bolu Babalola’s love is in the details
In the British-Nigerian writer’s new book, Love in Colour, she reshapes mythical tales into cinematic love stories that are told with intentional care, centring Black lives and pop culture.
Streaming platforms underpay musicians
A union has launched a campaign against streaming giant Spotify, which pays artists too little to earn a living while raking in billions for its chief executive and investors.
Long Read | ‘Wherever there’s a cop beating a guy’
Twenty-five years ago today, Bruce Springsteen released The Ghost of Tom Joad. It remains a searing record of real political import that sounds even more timely than it did in 1995.
An intimate homage to Chinese migrant life in SA
A curated show at a former corner shop in Brixton, Johannesburg, offers a glimpse into the lives of a Chinese migrant couple who made apartheid South Africa home.
Home is where the music is for Sisonke Xonti
The saxophonist’s second album as leader maps his jazz journey to a greater awareness of the world and his place in it.
Text Messages | Emmeline Pankhurst, a reed of steel
Speeches by the women’s suffrage leader in favour of enfranchisement were eloquent, pointed and forceful, making ‘our case clear’ by the ‘very simple fact that women are human beings’.
The seismic impact of Machesa and Eric Ramco
The legendary group and their producer took Setswana traditional music from villages to the world. But after a long hiatus and years of decline, can Ramco do it again?
Sport
Club Africain’s 100 years of Tunisian pride
Then under French control, the founders stood up to the authorities to create the first Tunisian football club managed by Tunisians. They have weathered many storms since to reach a century.
Bielsa: A principled man in an unprincipled world
Charismatic coach Marcelo Bielsa has a paltry trophy return for a man regarded as footballing royalty. Why does he matter and why do some experts say he can save the beautiful game?
Trevor Sithole has big fly-fishing plans
The KwaZulu-Natal fly-fisher wants to pave the way for more Black people to take up the sport he loves, one that has played a critical role in his life.
Table cricket gives disabled kids a go at the game
An exciting variation of cricket for children with additional needs provides the thrill of competition and the camaraderie of playing in a team, but its introduction into schools has been slow.
SA Rugby’s Covid-19 dilemma
Rugby hasn’t escaped the pandemic and the problems it has brought upon life and every organised activity that people enjoy.
The rise of SA players abroad is good for Banyana
The growing list of professional women footballers plying their trade at overseas clubs could be the missing piece the side needs to conquer the continent after five failed attempts.
Busy Bee continues to sting despite challenges
Cape Town’s oldest Black rugby club personifies the problems Black rugby faces, including attempts to have its history erased, being affected by apartheid and struggling financially for good resources.
Sintu Manjezi takes the Bulls by the horns
After a tug of war between the Cheetahs and the Bulls for his services, the lock-cum-flanker decided on a move to Pretoria, the latest step on an injury-strewn road to stardom.
How the WNBA ignited social activism in sports
The Women’s National Basketball Association led the charge in amplifying the Black Lives Matter message, taking a stand before Colin Kaepernick sat out the national anthem and then took the knee.
Editorial and Analysis
Part one | Nuclear energy in Africa
The first in this three-part series looks at the cost of nuclear power and how vendors minimise their financial risk by maximising profits through power purchase agreements with governments.
Zuma maintains his true colours at Zondo commission
The former president’s escapades at the commission of inquiry into state capture are a far cry from Nelson Mandela’s response when summonsed to testify in the high court.
Eastern Cape health woes expose government failures
Covid-19 has highlighted what South Africans already knew about the Eastern Cape’s health system: it’s dysfunctional and on the verge of collapse, and a remedy is needed urgently.