Every so often, while on the way to the office, I would stop at the department of education’s district office, which covers Lenasia, Soweto and surrounds to ask the assembled workers why they were protesting. I would quiz the workers about their demands. To be clear, there are times when ‘wild cat’ strikes are needed and obviously there were deeper issues under the surface that needed to be addressed. However, I always left with a deep sense of disappointment that the children were being failed.
A presidential review is underway to determine whether all of South Africa’s parastatals are fulfilling their mandate, creating value and enabling the government to grow the economy. I did an interview with CNBC Africa on the review process being undertaken.
Are newspapers receptive to civil society voices? I argue that in my experience newspapers need to do much more to provide a voice to civil society.
For more clips visit SACSIS. The organisers have captured the essence of the engagement as follows:
SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office. The roundtable examined the media’s perspective of the South African economy.Other media speakers at the event included, Nic Dawes (Editor in Chief, Mail & Guardian), Alide Dasnois (Editor, Cape Times) and Reg Rumney (Head of the Centre for Economics Journalism in Africa, Rhodes University). Editors were asked to answer the following questions: Is the economy on the right growth path? What are the prospects for making it more inclusive? How does the media report on the economy? Does the media have a vision for South Africa’s economic development?
(Still a little strange to be posting clips of myself online.)
