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OP-ED | Twelve years after PharmaGate, delay is a policy choice
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. The IP policy, which sought…
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OP-ED | Climate change neglect is driving a crisis in public health and education
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 implement climate adaptation measures instead…
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OP-ED | Despite the gains since 1976, the struggle for young South Africans has evolved rather than ended
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 books, not weapons, furious that…
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OP-ED | We must build the schools the Class of 1976 fought for
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 dignity, opportunity and freedom. The…
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OP-ED | Parliamentary hearings must listen harder to public input
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 rights long denied under apartheid.…
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OP-ED | Calls grow for accountability as obstetric violence emerges as overlooked form of GBV
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 violence in homes and communities,…
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OP-ED | A nation-building budget requires classrooms and clinics
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 for school and health infrastructure.…
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OP-ED | R15 billion budget, only one new school built. Prioritise SA’s education
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 South Africa’s urban provinces for…
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OP-ED | Sona 2026: Nation-building begins with rebuilding public services
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 frontline workers shape trust in…
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OP-ED | Record matric results demand real investment
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%. This is a remarkable achievement…
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OP-ED | How gender-responsive budgeting in South Africa can combat entrenched inequality
PUBLISHED BY Daily Maverick WRITTEN BY: Juhi Kasan, Kirsten Pearson, Lisa Higginson, Thokozile Madonko, Aliya Chikte and Matshidiso Lencoasa Gender-responsive budgeting – or GRB in government and policy circles – is an essential tool for achieving a truly equitable society. At its best, GRB goes far beyond superficial allocations to so-called women’s programmes. It fundamentally…
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OP-ED | Not using the laws against sexual predators in schools means we’re failing our kids
PUBLISHED BY: News24/City Press WRITTEN BY: Zeenat Sujee & Tendai Mafuma When schools fail children, children fail. The scourge of gender-based violence has infiltrated all corners of our society and schools have not been spared. Schools are foundational not only to a child’s future, but to that of our nation. In schools, children are meant…
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OP-ED | Quiet economic growth for whom?
PUBLISHED BY: TimesLive WRITTEN BY: Matshidiso Lencoasa and Clotilde Angelucci Leading up to the medium-term budget policy statement, National Treasury’s director-general Duncan Pieterse has assured the country that Treasury is steering South Africa onto a path of “quiet but firm growth”, aimed at building credibility with investors. As the Budget Justice Coalition, we know that the budget is…
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OP-ED | Life Esidimeni: The NPA has the evidence, now it must do its job
PUBLISHED BY: Sunday Times WRITTEN BY: Sasha Stevenson On August 15 2016, Virginia Machpelah died. She was 50 years old. She was 1.5m tall and at the time of her death she weighed 35kg. Her body was emaciated and dehydrated, with gangrene on both feet. The details of Machpelah’s death have been known since 2016.…
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OP-ED | Silent threat: How air pollution may shape SA children’s faces
PUBLISHED BY: News24 WRITTEN BY: Kholofelo Mphahlele In South Africa, pregnant women living in areas with high levels of air pollution face an increased risk of giving birth to a child with a congenial anomaly, particularly craniofacial cleft lip and palate (CLP.) CLP is one of the five most common congenital birth disorders in South…
