Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Steven Friedman

Creator

Steven Friedman

Death march: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz commemorate Jews deported from Berlin in 1942, in March 2023. Photo: Tobias Schwarz/AFP

Understanding Jewishness

An edited extract from South African writer Steven Friedman’s new book ‘Good Jew, Bad Jew’

The DA posters in the Durban suburb of Phoenix that caused a furore and led to the party taking them down and apologising. (Photograph by Gallo Images/ Darren Stewart)

The DA is becoming the poster child of the Right

An examination of the language the party uses shows that it is echoing right-wing voices the world over in its insistence that those who point out its racism are, in fact, the…

What appears to citizens as poor service delivery is often the visible result of deeper institutional weaknesses.
(David Harrison)

Is too much service delivery killing South Africa’s democracy?

Citizens want a meaningful say in how they are governed, not local government that foists on them what it has decided the people need.

Diagnoses of doom mask denial about real problems facing South Africa

There is a huge difference between holding a governing party to account and making it an excuse for failing to face deep-rooted problems. Fixating on the ANC has given the…

A nurse draws the Pfizer vaccine from a vial at the Hillbrow Community Health Centre. The government’s electronic vaccination data system excludes those who cannot register online to receive the vaccine. (Photograph by Ihsaan Haffejee)

Blinded by the glow of the ‘First World’ gaze

The government’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout plan blatantly ignores the realities of life for the majority of South Africans. Sadly, this lack of insight and sense was to be expected

A Palestinian girl stands amid the rubble of her destroyed home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, after the recent cross-border war between Israel and Hamas. (Photograph by Fatima Shbair/ Getty Images)

Palestine could be taking a South African direction

The signs are there that the Israeli state may have ‘won’ the most recent battle against Palestinians but could be losing the protracted war, especially in the court of public…

(Photo: Delwyn Verasamy)

We should give political parties more money

If supporters do it for democracy — and not to gain favour — then it needn’t be secret

The landscape of technology-driven elections is fast mutating. With the current deficits, there is a need for adequate digital skills if Africa is to be recognised for effective handling of elections.

Material change to electoral system remains elusive

Expectations that the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling on independent candidates may give the majority of voters a stronger voice are premature and largely unwarranted

Professor Salim Abdool Karim says that the lockdown has brought South Africans some time to prepare for the fight against the Coronavirus. (Madelene Cronjé)

Government’s Covid-19 science mask is slipping

The government’s professed reliance on science to justify its response to the pandemic reveals both its overconfidence and its insecurities about getting citizens to cooperate