As an experienced member of the national cabinet, new transport minister Barbara Creecy surely knows that departmental policy is the responsibility of ministers “for the powers and functions of the executive assigned to them by the president” under section 92 of the...
The powers of the Public Protector
By Paul Hoffman* Now that the high jinks of Busisiwe Mkhwebane, our current Public Protector, have been characterised as both dishonest and indicative of her incompetence by our highest court and by our long-suffering and chronically persecuted Minister of Public...
Legal confusion reigns in latest spat between Public Protector and Ramaphosa
Opinionista • Paul Hoffman • 21 July 2019 Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane and President Cyril Ramaphosa are both right and both wrong in the legal spat over the donation to the CR17 campaign. Following the publication on 19 July 2019 of the Public Protector’s...
Zuma — a ruler who has lost the trust of the nation
Far too much time and energy is spent dealing with President Jacob Zuma's troubles — he's not above the law Opposition parties have drawn criticism for roasting the president, rather than concentrating on what critics call "the substantive issues" arising from his...
Open letter to members of parliament and other influential persons in South Africa by Prof Pierre Faure
2015 ECON LETTER TO MPs & DOC
Independent integrity agency is vital to defeat corruption
NOW that lekgotla season is upon us, the leadership in the governing alliance is reflecting on the role of corruption in SA and its effect on the success of the nation. This is as it should be. The general definition of corruption is the abuse of public office for...
Homelessness In The New South Africa
The lot of street people, street children, collectively "the homeless" is a terrible and hard-to-face indictment of the caring, compassionate and human rights oriented ethos of the new dispensation in South Africa. Those living in doorways, under bridges, on pavements...
Poo Politicking Goes Around The Bend
Wednesday 5 February 2014 is a day that will live in infamy in the annals of the history of Cape Town. Two events, and the very average conduct of some present at both of them will ensure that. A turning point in the promotion of participative democracy was reached...
Cape Chamber of Commerce & Industry – Job Summit (26th Sept 2011)
Facing up to the crisis Clearly this summit comes at a time of crisis as our country continues to lurch from one strike season to another, when key public service and Business sectors at all levels of employment, from unskilled to highly dedicated professionals such...
Doing business in a constitutional democracy
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be invited to participate actively in this timely jobs summit. It is also an honour to have so diverse and august an audience. While observing all protocol, allow me to establish the composition of my audience here today: How many...
The Truth About Employment Equity
To measure progress and the returns on the national investment in employment equity over the past twelve years by the 'one size fits all' measurement of demographic representation is a gross oversimplification and a reckless disregard for the complex nature of...
Employment Equity Constitutionally Revisited
It is extremely rare to find a senior cabinet minister excoriating his own government's chief spokesman in public. When the spokesman in question is also simultaneously president of a business management pressure group, probably due to the inability of his superiors...
Made In Dagenham; Perfected In Newcastle? – “Over-Protective Labour Law Dispensation”
The search for what Jeremy Cronin of the SACP calls "a paradigm shift" in the functioning of the South African economy has attracted much heat and dust in the public debate around the clutch of proposed amendments to our over-protective labour law dispensation and the...
Tuberculosis And Poverty: What Could (And Should) Be Done?
Two groups of experts from different parts of the world agree that extreme poverty and all its accompaniments-malnutrition, overcrowding or homelessness, addiction, and lack of access to health care-is the major driving force underlying the presence and spread of...
Kader Asmal Calls For The Scrapping Of The National Democratic Revolution
It should not be allowed to pass unnoticed that Professor Kader Asmal, an architect of the constitution, a former cabinet member under two Presidents, and an ANC stalwart, has used the opportunity presented by the conference on ethics in public life held in Cape Town...
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