If South Africa’s argument in court is that marijuana causes harm, it deserves to lose. The real question it should ask is whether criminal prohibition is the effective way forward.
L’expertise universitaire, l’exigence journalistique
Social justice – Analyses
After South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, the previously oppressed and dispossessed black majority hoped for constitutional restitution of their land. This has largely failed.
The new French president has been accused of racism over comments about Africa’s ‘civilisational’ problems.
To honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, South Africa could do with its citizens becoming more active in driving development - particularly efforts to tackle poverty an inequality.
What is an economy for? And how do we build a community where everyone belongs? We need to answer questions like these to create good, sustainable cities.
The political cost of corruption is reaching unacceptable levels in South Africa. Reversing the effects of state decay on the poor will take short and long term interventions.
The judgment recognises that religion plays a large role in South African society. The right to follow a religion is embedded in the constitution. This means that South Africa isn’t a secular state.
Andimba (Herman) Toivo Ya Toivo remained loyal to what made him the personification of the desire to live in an independent country governed by, and for, its people.
The public protector’s proposal to change the mandate of South Africa’s Reserve Bank goes well beyond changing individual rules to overturning their very foundation, anchored in the Constitution.
South Africa’s democracy is in trouble. But the challenge is less about who should control state institutions, and more about how they can be refashioned to deliver to the poor.
Marginal people become resourceless, invisible to public policies, and disempowered in public life. This increases their vulnerability to disaster.
Recent events suggest that South Africa’s government may be resorting to short-term measures to pacify anger over lack of housing. But what’s needed is a major overhaul of the housing policy.
Protests in South Africa are about more than just service delivery of basic services such as water and electricity. They reflect a wider crisis about the failure to build a more equitable society.
Although South Africa has taken steps to rid itself of the apartheid-era view of marriage as only heterosexual and monogamous, discrimination against religious marriages persist.
South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s apology for his role in the 2012 Marikana massacre has no credibility, as there wasn’t full disclosure.
The debate about white monopoly capital in post-apartheid South Africa is good for the country’s politics but it tends to come with bad sociology.
A civil society organisation, OGOD, wants South Africa’s public schools to stop calling themselves Christian and to outlaw their religious practices.
The move by the African Union to develop a policy to regulate the impact of firms on human rights puts it ahead of other regions as it seeks to guide companies conducting activities on the continent.
Protests in South Africa have largely been confined to black working class townships and informal settlements. Is this beginning to change?
The clash over South Africa’s Traditional Courts Bill is essentially about custom and constitutionalism. The government is often seen as pandering to traditional leaders’ whims.
Most Africans see courts as legitimate but only a slim majority trust them while one in three people believe judges are corrupt.
A lot of moral outrage has been expressed lately – over Trump’s travel ban and other issues. The expression of such outrage is more than a response to perceived injustice.
South African struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada believed in non-racialism to his core, even as others around him began to argue for an Africanist approach.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has repeatedly stepped in to protect vulnerable people and to perform what former deputy chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke calls its “transformative role”.
As South Africa marks Human Rights Day and the 20th anniversary of its constitution it’s a good time to reflect on the problems it faces in making constitutional rights a reality.