Preface: News reporting functions to develop emerging consensus about the meaning of news events. In an earlier article I explored ways in which the fire in the Usindiso building in central Johannesburg, on 31 August, was reported by three news publishers, The South...

Preface This article reflects the implications of people who invade and settle on land. In November 2021 my colleagues at Stellenbosch Transparency, Mike Hyland and Arumugam Pillay, and I did a practice-run of analysing news reports about a vexed issue in our society:...

By Paul Hendler, Stellenbosch Transparency.I reflect on the news reporting connotations by three news publishers, The South African, Eye Witness News (EWN) and The Independent on Line (IoL). In the early hours of the morning of 31 August 2023 a fire broke out in the...

Why "crime and evidence"? Crime and evidence refers to proving that a definite individual committed a specific crime. Through violating a specific law, or common law. On 18 May Boetie Sheldon Johannes appeared in the Stellenbosch magistrate's court. They charged him...

This post explores enclosure mentalities. That is, the mental constructs we erect to enclose ourselves and nature. It is a continuation of three previous posts from 2018. At that juncture I was engaging the ward committee and the neighbourhood watch regarding the...

This is a story about stop-and-frisk harassment of the homeless in Onderpapegaaiberg in Stellenbosch, South Africa. It records the experiences of one Boetie Sheldon Johannes.

What is meant by adequate housing? And how do we get adequate housing for all South Africans? The Stellenbosch United Action Group met with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in October 2020. They raised the question of what constitutes violation of the right to housing.

There is a social struggle over the meaning of ‘adequate housing’. The struggle is to determine where this housing should be located. And the struggle is also about who should pay for it.

Struggle for the Constitutional Right Section 26 of the South African Bill of Rights confers on all South Africans the right to access to adequate housing. We explore the issues.

The Don’t Look Away (DLA) Campaign is a project of Independent Media (IM) IM is “one of South Africa’s leading multi-platform companies”, including 20 of the country’s most prominent newspapers. DLA published an advertisement in one of these newspapers, the Week End Argus, on 08 December 2019. The advertisement has a picture of a terrified, abused young woman.

In Part One of this series we defined ‘democracy’. We saw that the system of representative, multi-party democracy that we adopted in 1994, is a particular type of democracy. Managed democracy. We also juxtaposed this with an ideal of direct democracy where the people don’t just vote periodically but also rule in-between elections.

We have a democratic system of government. Therefore, we have regular elections where different parties compete for votes. Consequently, in May 2019 there will be a general election. And in 2021, local government elections.

How do we go about engaging conflicting opinions? The Fence issue has morphed into something bigger. Things aren’t as clear cut as the supporters of the Fence think they are. But critics of the Fence need to ask ourselves how committed we are to organising to show a different way.

We need objective information about goings on in Onderpapegaaiberg. Hence my 19 questions about the ward committee’s decision to build the Fence. These included questions about the decision-making process.

To reduce crime incidents Onderpapegaaiberg Ward Committee erected a fence on Papegaaiberg. Its aim? To mitigate the risk of crime. And help catch criminals. How serious is crime in Onderpapegaaiberg? What are the facts about crime incidents?

There are conflicting ways of seeing crime and fencing. For example, we can respond to crime through building walls. Or building bridges. How do we provide for our own security without violating others’ rights?

I wanted to get access to information about the Onderpapegaaiberg Fence and was invited to attend a Ward meeting. Before doing that, I sent them 19 questions.

Dear Mr Widmark Moses, you wrote to us on 24 March 2019 to ask us about our thoughts on economic freedom.