Phetedi Has an Approval Letter. So Where Is the School?
The government approved Phetedi Primary School in 2023, but the classrooms never followed. As Magagamatala waits, the BPSA is demanding answers about infrastructure delays, scholar…
OpinionPage 5
The Dangerous Lie We Tell About Amadlozi and Alcohol
The bottle can become a dangerous hiding place when its presence is explained through amadlozi. For izinyanga and izangoma, the consequences reach beyond drunkenness, touching dignity…
Julius Mkhwanazi’s Peri-Peri Bad Year From Hell
There are bad years, and then there is Julius Mkhwanazi’s year, an extraordinary procession of commissions, allegations, arrests and court appearances in which the only dependable source…
What Kind of City Lets Children Play in Sewage?
A municipal park should offer children safety, exercise, and community. In Saulsville, it offers sewage, rubbish, vandalised equipment, and a brutal lesson in what institutional neglect…
Brother Salif Keita, Keep An Open Mind About South Africa
Salif Keita has closed the door on South Africa over what he sees as xenophobic violence. But before judging a country he once stood beside, Sandile Memela says he should listen to…
Artists Are Not Beggars. They Are Citizens Demanding Accountability
Artists do not expect government to manage their lives or guarantee their success. They do, however, expect contracts, royalties, institutions, funding systems and laws to work. Sello…
Equal Citizens, Unequal Lives: What We Miss When We Dismiss Artists’ Vulnerability
Telling artists to take responsibility for themselves is reasonable, but responsibility becomes an empty prescription when the nature of creative work makes conventional security difficult…
Artists Are Not More Important Than The Bricklayer
Sandile Memela argues that artists must abandon the idea that their cultural contribution places them above other citizens, insisting that bricklayers, nurses, teachers and farmworkers…
I Knew I Was Drinking Too Much. I Did Not Know What It Was Doing to Me
I knew the drinking had become a problem, but I had no real understanding of what was happening inside my body until illness, fear and a doctor’s blunt words forced me to confront it.
Blame Is the Escape Hatch When Accountability Hurts
Enemies do not always create the weaknesses they exploit. Sometimes they find the door already open, the alarm switched off, and the house neglected. The ANC’s enduring problem is not the…
Phala Phala and the Curious Case of the Moving Goalposts
Years after the cash-in-the-couch scandal erupted, the questions remain stubbornly unanswered, as court battles, parliamentary objections, and procedural hurdles continue to keep the…
What We Do Not See When Someone Drinks
We talk endlessly about the damage alcohol can cause, but far less about what sits beneath the drinking: loneliness, grief, pressure, shame and pain. Sometimes the person holding the glass…
When the State Says, “Reclaim Your Streets”, What Does It Give You to Do It?
After four people were killed in Reiger Park, the call was for communities to reclaim their streets. But communities cannot be expected to bear responsibility for public safety without…
Jozi FM’s Governance War Could Destroy One of Soweto’s Greatest Institutions
The crisis engulfing Jozi FM is greater than a quarrel between competing factions. It raises serious questions about accountability, public trust, and the stewardship of community…
Guns, Violence and the Questions South Africa Has Avoided
South Africa’s gun debate has become a shouting match in which statistics are wielded as weapons by both sides. But beneath the arguments over ownership and restriction lies a more…
Unbundling Eskom Could Break South Africa’s Social Contract
Reforming Eskom is unavoidable. But reform and dismantling are not the same thing. Once electricity becomes increasingly governed by competing commercial interests, accountability becomes…
The GNU Is Losing Its Greatest Asset: Public Confidence
A coalition can survive disagreements around a Cabinet table. It cannot indefinitely survive the loss of confidence outside it. The GNU began with unusually high expectations and…
We Sent Our Children Elsewhere. This Is What We Left Behind.
There was a time when these schools were filled with children whose dreams seemed to have no limits. Then the children began leaving for schools elsewhere. What followed was a slow…
The DA Is Treating a Governance Crisis as a Market Failure
South Africa does not lack laws, institutions or mechanisms to rescue failing municipalities. What it lacks is the political will to use them consistently. Replacing basic, yet critical…
Thousands of Criminal Cases Collapse Before Trial
Over a 24-month period, 10,315 illegal-firearm cases were enrolled for prosecution, but 6,569 were withdrawn before trial. Behind the figures are incomplete police dockets, missing…