PUBLISHED BY: WRITTEN BY: Sowetan Matshidiso Lencoasa Seventy years after more than 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings for our freedom and dignity, we mark Women’s Month under the theme “Empowered Women, Empower the Nation”. This theme reflects a truth we see every day: when women are empowered, Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: Sowetan WRITTEN BY: Gauta Mashego & Teri Brown We are more than halfway into 2026, and the unrest in South Africa has pointed to serious socioeconomic challenges plaguing the nation. Thirty-two years into our democracy, the youth, though liberated politically, face high unemployment and poverty. These interconnected challenges Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: Health-E WRITTEN BY: Candice Sehoma and Tendai Mafuma A Promise Deferred: Twelve Years Since PharmaGate It has been more than twelve years since the reveal of “PharmaGate,” a R6 million lobbying plot by the pharmaceutical industry aimed at delaying and weakening South Africa’s draft intellectual property (IP) policy. Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: Daily Maverick WRITTEN BY: Jonathan West and Thato Gaffane Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue in South Africa – it is undermining constitutional rights by disrupting access to education, healthcare and other essential services. As floods become more frequent and severe, the government must urgently Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: Daily Maverick WRITTEN BY: Teri Brown and Faatima Laher On the morning of 16 June 1976, thousands of pupils in Soweto laced up their shoes and walked towards a confrontation that they did not fully understand would define a nation. They were not soldiers, they were students carrying Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: Sowetan WRITTEN BY: Matshidiso Lencoasa Fifty years ago, Soweto became the heart of the struggle for education rooted in dignity and equality. Hundreds of young people gave their lives in that fight. The Class of 1976 fought against a system that treated black children as less deserving of Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: City Press WRITTEN BY: Matshidiso Lencoasa As a so-called born-free, this language of freedom sits in painful tension with the lived realities of hardship and oppression facing not only our generation, but communities across South Africa. This year also marks 30 years of our constitutional order, which secured Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: Daily Maverick WRITTEN BY: Gauta Mashego and Kholofelo Mphahlele South Africa continues to grapple with alarmingly high levels of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF). In 2025, nationwide protests over the crisis led President Cyril Ramaphosa to classify GBVF as a national disaster. However, while public attention often focuses on Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: City Press WRITTEN BY: Matshidiso Lencoasa In his state of the nation address earlier this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised that government would invest in social infrastructure to build a “nation that works for all”. Yet, just two weeks later, the budget plan proposed real reductions in funding Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: News24 WRITTEN BY: Mduduzi Nkosi Earlier this year, we were again confronted with the recurring issue of unplaced learners and those placed in schools far from their homes. At the time of writing, about 1000 pupils remain unplaced in Gauteng alone. This problem has been a commonplace in Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: City Press WRITTEN BY: Matshidiso Lencoasa This week, the state of the nation address (SONA) once again takes centre stage, setting our government’s vision of the year ahead. For most South Africans, the state of our nation is experienced through public services. Daily encounters with schools, clinics and Continue Reading
PUBLISHED BY: News24 WRITTEN BY: Matshidiso Lencoasa Earlier this month, the class of 2025 delivered record matric results, gifting the country a moment of collective pride where young people’s stories are too often characterised by hardship. Not a single district in the top-performing KwaZulu-Natal recorded a pass rate below 85%. Continue Reading
