Opinion Archives

ROADS, RESOURCES AND RENEWAL: The Northern Cape is Open for Business

7Mar

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

ROADS, RESOURCES AND RENEWAL: The Northern Cape is Open for Business

By Zandisile Luphahla: Roads are a top priority in the Northern Cape as arteries that facilitate the flow of the economy. (Image: Supplied by Department) Dr Saul's 2026 State of the Province Address and President Ramaphosa's SONA are not simply aligned - they are two parts of the same bold national project. As the Department of Roads and Public Works, we are proud to be at the centre of delivering that project for the people of the Northern Cape. There are moments in governance when everything comes into alignment - when a national vision and a provincial plan speak in the same language, point in the same direction, and call upon the same institutions to deliver. The 2026 State of the Nation Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the 2026 State of the Province Addres...

Robert Mangaliso Sobukhwe University: Reclaiming Our African Identity and Depicting Our Heroes’ Resilience and Resistance

6Mar

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

Robert Mangaliso Sobukhwe University: Reclaiming Our African Identity and Depicting Our Heroes’ Resilience and Resistance

By George Tsibani: University of Fort Hare at Alice (Image: Fort Hare website) Renaming heritage sites, towns, streets, and universities is a significant step in reclaiming African identity and acknowledging the resilience and resistance of our heroes and heroines. This process is not merely about changing names, but about reclaiming our lost identity and moving away from colonial narratives and the related lie of 1652, retribalisation and tribalism disguised under the current neoliberalism. Dr. JJ Klaas KaNcilashe aptly articulates the rationale behind renaming, emphasizing the importance of honouring those who fought for freedom and justice. Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a prominent anti-apartheid leader and founder of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), is a...

When Regulation Fails, People Die.-Joburg’s Building Collapse is a National Wake-Up Call

5Mar

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

When Regulation Fails, People Die.-Joburg’s Building Collapse is a National Wake-Up Call

By Lungelo Dlamini: The building that collapsed in Ormonde. (Image: SABC) The tragic collapse of a building in Ormonde, Johannesburg, which claimed the lives of six construction workers and left others missing, has revealed a chilling truth about governance, regulation, and accountability in our cities. According to the municipal manager, no approved plans were found for the structure that fell, raising disturbing questions about how buildings are authorised, constructed, and monitored in South Africa’s largest metropolis. What should have been a routine construction site tragically turned into a death trap because the most basic regulatory safeguard, approved architectural and structural plans, appears to be absent or unaccounted for. This is more than an administrati...

Budget 2026: Budgets allocate money. Accountability delivers results.

2Mar

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

Budget 2026: Budgets allocate money. Accountability delivers results.

By Lungelo Dlamini: Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivering the budget speech. (Image: Parliament) The 2026 Budget Speech painted a picture of recovery, reform, and renewed discipline. From health and education to infrastructure, policing, social grants, and economic growth, the government set out ambitious plans for the year ahead. Billions have been allocated across departments. Yet for many South Africans citizen, daily life still feels marked by overcrowded hospitals, struggling schools, unreliable infrastructure, rising crime, and limited economic opportunity. The central question is no longer what is promised. It is whether those promises are matched by visible accountability and measurable results. In health, more than R280 billion has been all...

28Feb

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

ANC must reject racial theories

By George Tsibani: ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula and National Chair, Gwede Mantashe. (Image: MyANC /Fikile Mbalula Facebook page) 1. Purpose The purpose of this analysis is to critically examine the African National Congress's (ANC) trajectory and its implications for South Africa's future, with a focus on the persistence of colonial narratives and racial capitalism. 2. Introduction and Background The ANC, once a champion of non-racialism and non-sexism, appears to have deviated from its foundational ethos, values, and principles. The party's shift towards regionalism, cronyism, factionalism, greed, corruption, and male chauvinism is reminiscent of Nkrumah's National Liberation Political Party in Ghana. This trend risks vindicating colonial narrat...

When Schools Become Battlegrounds: South Africa Must Confront the Bullying Crisis

28Feb

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

When Schools Become Battlegrounds: South Africa Must Confront the Bullying Crisis

By Lungelo Dlamini: South Africa cannot call its schools centres of excellence while thousands of children are afraid to sit in a classroom. The recent report by The Citizen highlighting the rise of bullying cases in Gauteng and the Western Cape should alarm every parent, teacher, and policymaker. More than 1 000 cases were reported in Gauteng alone, with additional cases recorded in the Western Cape. These are not just statistics. They are children, real learners who wake up each morning unsure whether school will bring education or humiliation. Bullying follows children home Bullying is not new. But the scale and nature of it are changing. Today’s bullying is not limited to playground fights or name-calling behind the classroom block. It fo...

Renewal or Decline: Confronting Corruption and Incompetence in the Movement

22Feb

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

Renewal or Decline: Confronting Corruption and Incompetence in the Movement

By Fundile D. Gade: ANC members commemorating the 114th ANC anniversary and listening to the January 8 Statement in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on 11 January. (Image: Fikile Mbalula/MyANC Facebook page) For many years, corruption has rightly been identified as a major threat to our democratic project. But today, we must confront an equally dangerous force: incompetence. These two — corruption and incompetence — are the terrible twins undermining the credibility of a democratically elected government. One steals public resources. The other squanders them. Together, they weaken institutions, erode public trust, and distance the movement from the people it was formed to serve. If we are serious about consolidating the people’s camp, we must fight both with equal determination...

Dead are SA politics – so is the media that has become the walkie-talkie of such zombified politics

22Feb

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

Dead are SA politics – so is the media that has become the walkie-talkie of such zombified politics

By Oupa Ngwenya: This is because blacks in SA politics do not matter. What residually matters still in SA politics is political parties that too have been guilt-tripped to neglect black people, as a measure of misguided and ill-informed ‘progressivism’ disbelieving that black people do not qualify to serve as the primary source, starting point and centre of concern of politics. Black people’s peripherisation is not by accident but by design. As this black neglect grows, the illusion of splintered uselessed black power scavenges on the carcass of surviving but warring loyalties hoping to outwit each other for centredness in a ‘GNU’ setting that does not hide that all this black neglect is by expressed wish of ‘the markets’ that decreed their preferred coalition formula as...

RAMAPHOSA’S SONA 2026: A Government Caught Between Promise and Perception

18Feb

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

RAMAPHOSA’S SONA 2026: A Government Caught Between Promise and Perception

By Lungelo Dlamini: President Cyril Ramaphosa, during SONA, 12 February 2026 (Image: SA Government) During the 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Cyril Ramaphosa adopted a tone focused on urgency and renewal. He discussed infrastructure reform, economic revival, rebuilding public confidence, professionalising the state, and speeding up service provision. The address focused on responsibility, results, and restoring trust in government. However, when examined alongside the 6th South African Government Leaders on X Report by Decode, an alternative yet intricately linked narrative emerges, highlighting the widening divide between political communication and public opinion. The X Report examines the ways in which government officials utilise X to en...

Six Weeks after Davos Things No longer the Same

17Feb

By News SANo Comments

Opinion

Six Weeks after Davos Things No longer the Same

By Zola Pinda: President Donald Trump at the WTO forum in Davos. (Image: SABC/Reuters) Davos 2026 was a masterclass in contrast: predictable pragmatism versus reckless volatility. On one side, China strutted its narrative of stability, multilateralism, and market continuity. On the other hand, the United States, under President Donald Trump, reminded the world why Western allies are hedging, diversifying, and quietly building bridges elsewhere. Trump promised protection. What he delivered is chaos. Tariffs slammed onto allies like a sledgehammer. Threats over Greenland, abrupt policy reversals, and a transactional approach to diplomacy have turned American businesses into collateral damage. Supply chains buckle. Investments are postponed. Costs soar. Mark...