South Africa

A South African prelate is urging Catholics to oppose the Protection of State Information Bill, which is under consideration in the nation’s legislature.

“The Bill comprehensively protects the State Security Agency from public scrutiny because it allows the Agency itself to decide what it wishes to be kept secret,” said Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, the nation’s legislative capital. “Any illegal activity by the Agency could therefore easily be hidden from scrutiny and from the legal process.”

Dr Sarojini Nadar is a theologian and academic from South Africa working on the issues of gender, religion and health for many years. She is currently serving as senior lecturer and director of the Gender and Religion programme, School of Religion and Theology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Nadar has been deeply involved with churches to raise awareness about women’s health in communities, challenging patriarchal values and working for gender justice.

Re-imagining Church for 21st Century South Africa – a somewhat presumptuous title for an article. But I beg your indulgence in my presumption. What makes this article even more presumptuous is that based on some of my thought patterns over the past few years, I would not have imagined myself writing on the church in the 21st Century. My imagination of what church can be like had caused me to be somewhat disenchanted about what I saw church to be like.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on Thursday had harsh words for South Africa’s white population, as well as for Cabinet ministers who he said should lose their expensive cars as a gesture to show the poor that they cared.

“Our white fellow citizens have to accept the obvious: You all benefitted from apartheid. But that does not mean that all are responsible for apartheid.

With just two weeks to go until the local government elections, the Black Sash has released a review of where the top five political parties stand on the key socio-economic issues facing South Africa. The review forms part of the organisation’s contribution to voter education as well as its ongoing initiative to monitor political parties’ performance and hold them accountable for their policy promises and service delivery commitments.

Written by Gavin Silber and Mandla Majola

The brutal murder of Andries Tatane by police during a protest against lack of access to water in Ficksburg is symbolic of the inequality, poverty and injustice that continues to haunt most people living in South Africa today.

Tatane's death has hit a nerve. It has illustrated once again that South Africans are becoming increasingly aggravated and disheartened by the slow pace of delivery to historically disadvantaged communities.

Written by Jonathan Jansen

There is a nasty story doing the rounds about a dedicated teacher who died and arrived at the pearly gates, to be offered a tour of the various mansions in heaven.

She saw a block of the most beautiful mansions, and the archangel confirmed that the noisy guys in white coats were doctors living there because of their dedicated service to mankind. Around the corner the newly arrived teacher saw an even more impressive block of mansions.

Seventeen years into our democracy, South Africa continues to fail the most vulnerable of its citizens - its children.

A disturbing report released yesterday by the UN Children's Fund and the SA Human Rights Commission said that 64%, or 11.9million, of our 18.6million children live in poverty, 1.4million rely on rivers or streams as their main source of water, and 1.5million have no toilet in their home.

Written by Graeme Bloch and Yoliswa Dwane

Anyone who marched this Human Rights Day alongside 25000 to 30000 pupils would have been inspired by their energy and disciplined determination. On a day of intense heat, not a bottle or stone was thrown. Uniformed pupils from suburbs in Cape Town, and some parents and teachers, assembled on the Grand Parade to put forward a simple demand: "We want the children to read! Build more school libraries, stock them with books and appoint a teacher to run each library."

Every year the Department of Water Affairs celebrates National Water Week in South Africa during the month of March, which also features World Water Day on the 22 March. The primary aim of the local campaign is to raise awareness about the role of water in social and economic development to motivate a change of attitude towards water use.