Open up the borders National debate on immigrants is vital, writes Nkosikhulule Nyembezi.

One of the most important steps forward President Jacob Zuma could take when he addresses the nation this week is to introduce a meaningful national debate on our flawed immigration policy. It's a conversation that we can no longer avoid, involving matters of deep introspection, questions about who we are as a country and how we identify ourselves as in-dividuals. And it is an issue that urgently needs clear and decisive leadership. Civil society organisations such as the Black Sash have consistently argued that our current immigra-tion policy needs to be underpinned by a rights-based management of asylum seekers, refugees and work seekers. It also needs to focus on the efficient movement of skills to promote national and regional de-velopment. This is particularly ur-gent given the recent policy ini-tiatives to revive the economy and the high levels of prejudice against foreign nationals.

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Current social security reforms provide necessary opportunities to ensure the dignity and social protection of all citizens, writes RATULA BEUKMAN.

Recent developments in the reform of retirement provision policies suggest that continued work is taking place within government towards the building of a comprehensive social security system for our country.

Sceptics have variously construed these reforms as a ploy to pacify the electorate, another step down the slippery slope towards a welfare state, or simply more handouts for the poor. However, civil society has read these developments as an important and long-overdue response to the recommendations of the 2002 Taylor Committee. The current reforms should be seen as a genuine opportunity for progress towards a comprehensive social security system that delivers on the promises of our Constitution, and which is in line with international labour and human rights treaties and laws.

Read the full article in the SA Reconciliation Barometer by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.

Judging by development indicators, a radical shift in the government's approach to economic growth is required, writes Nkosikhulule Nyembezi.
THE CLOSER you look at the impact of the economic crisis in the country and its negative effect on employment levels, poverty reduction, and the size of public fmances - the more harrowing it becomes.
Symptoms of serious trouble are staring us in the face, as the government also makes a rare official admission in the fifth annual scorecard of development indicators for South Africa compiled by the National Planning Commission, which was released on December 14.
The development indicators are the product of a variety of official statistics, government data and research by various institutions that are clustered into about 10 themes, including economic growth and transformation, employment, poverty and inequality, among others.
The scorecard shows that the severity of poverty in the country since 2005 "has not been dented."

Read the full opinion piece in the Mercury

INSIGHT By Nkosikhulule Nyembezi
THE launch of this year's campaign by the Daily Dispatch to monitor water quality at East London beaches highlights once more the urgent challenge to us all to identify and implement a long-term strategy to rebuild the nation's ailing infrastructure which is rapidly compromising the quality of water. Interestingly, these efforts could all be pulled together from household to national government level under the umbrella of job creation, short-term and long-term.
We all know public water works in South African cities and towns are a marvel, but they didn't just happen.
They are the result of significant investments by our parents and grandparents in state-of-the-art technology many, many years ago. We have been coasting on those investments for a long time while adding more stress to them in the form of the expanding industries and human settlements. There is no way to put off the need to repair, replace and upgrade many of these systems.

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