May 08
Africa: South Africa Will Be President of the G20 in 2025 - Two Much-Needed Reforms It Should Drive
South Africa will play an important international role in 2025 as president of the G20. The G20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the African Union and the European Union.… Read more »
May 07
Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's Likely to Abolish the Death Penalty - How It Got Here and What It Means for the Continent
Zimbabwe is likely to abolish capital punishment, following a cabinet decision on 7 February 2024. However, its parliament still has to endorse the move and pass the necessary law… Read more »
South Africa: South Africa Elections - Zuma's MK Party Has Hit the Campaign Trail With Provocative Rhetoric and Few Clear Policies
Former South African president Jacob Zuma surprised many in December 2023 by declaring he'd canvass for a new rival to the African National Congress (ANC), the party he used to… Read more »
South Africa: Minimum Wage for South African Farm Workers - Study Shows 2013 Hike Helped Reduce Poverty Even Though Compliance Was Poor
Minimum wage policies are typically aimed at reducing poverty. Yet there is little direct evidence of this effect, especially in developing countries. And none for South Africa. Read more »
May 06
South Africa: Caesarean Births - South Africa's Rates Are Too High - They Can Be Dangerous for Mothers and Babies
A caesarean section is an important surgical intervention that can save the lives of mother and baby. Caesarean sections are essential in complicated labours such as prolonged or… Read more »
South Africa: South African Elections - Research Explores How Disillusioned ANC Supporters Might Use Their Vote
The African National Congress (ANC) has been in power since South Africa became a democracy in 1994. The party has been electorally dominant since then, reaching a peak of 69.7% of… Read more »
May 03
South Africa: South Africa's National Student Financial Aid Scheme Has Helped Millions but Is in Trouble - Here's Why
The board of South Africa's National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has been dissolved by the country's higher education and training minister, Blade Nzimande, and the… Read more »
South Africa: What's the Job of a Company Chair? South Africa's Rules Aren't Clear and Need Fixing
Historically, the chair of the board of directors filled a procedural and ceremonial role. This was a low bar focusing on the chair's role in meetings. Read more »
May 02
South Africa: South Africans Are Abandoning Smallholder Farming - History and Policy Can Help Explain Why
South African smallholders are abandoning farming. The decline in field cultivation is a problem, since many of these smallholder households struggle to make ends meet. If people… Read more »
South Africa: Great White Sharks Off South Africa's Coast Are Protected By Law, but Not in Practice. Why This Needs to Change
In less than eight years, white sharks in South Africa have all but disappeared from their historical hotspots in False Bay and Gansbaai, on the Western Cape coast. These areas… Read more »
May 01
South Africa: South Africa's Media Have Done Good Work With 30 Years of Freedom but Need More Diversity
In 1992, two years before the end of apartheid, Nelson Mandela bemoaned the state of South Africa's print media. He said the media's domination by middle class males from the… Read more »
Malawi: Electricity From Farm Waste - How Biogas Could Help Malawians With No Power
In sub-Saharan Africa, over 600 million people (more than 50% of the population) are without access to electricity. Malawi has one of the world's lowest electricity access rates -… Read more »
April 30
South Africa: South Africa's Lemba People - How They View Their Jewishness Challenges Zionist Ideas That Identity Is Linked to One Homeland
A man wearing a yarmulke stands on the edge of a hill, quietly taking in the landscape below as he considers his ancestors and their histories in this place. This isn't Israel. It… Read more »
April 29
South Africa: How the Mandela Myth Helped Win the Battle for Democracy in South Africa
Political history scholar Jonny Steinberg's 2023 book Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage is a double biography of South Africa's most famous political figures - Nelson… Read more »
April 28
South Africa: Owning a Gun in South Africa Offers Some Safety, but Risks Run High for Users and Society - Expert
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, eclipsed only by Honduras and a handful of Caribbean island states. Furthermore, South African police crime data… Read more »
April 26
South Africa: Waste Pickers Play a Key Role in the Fight Against Plastic Pollution
Our addiction to plastics is trashing the planet, exacerbating global heating and threatening our very survival. Since 2022, the UN has been convening negotiations on a Plastics… Read more »
South Africa: South Africa's Constitution Was Set Up As the Bedrock of Its Democracy - It's Been Challenged Over Last 30 Years, but Has Held Firm
There was a moment during the state capture years of South African president Jacob Zuma's term in office (2009 to 2018) when the veil finally slipped. There had been quiet… Read more »
April 25
South Africa: South Africa's Young Education Researchers Need Networks to Share Experience More Than Pressure to Produce Outputs
South Africa has for many years been a strong player in several areas of world-class research. Some of the country's researchers have made major contributions in areas like the… Read more »
South Africa: South Africa's Youth Are a Generation Lost Under Democracy - Study
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently painted a rosy picture in which the country's youth - "democracy's children" - had enormous opportunities for advancement, all… Read more »
South Africa: Persisting Inequality Has Made Many Young South Africans Question the Choices Made By Nelson Mandela - Podcast
Some young South Africans have begun to question Nelson Mandela's legacy, and the choices made in the transition to democracy after the end of apartheid in 1994. Some have even… Read more »
April 23
South Africa: Johannesburg in a Time of Darkness - Ivan Vladislavić's New Memoir Reminds Us of the City's Fragility
Ivan Vladislavić is Johannesburg's literary linkman. He tells us, in the first pages of his new book, The Near North, that before cities were lit, first by gaslight and later… Read more »
South Africa: History for Sale - What Does South Africa's Struggle Heritage Mean After 30 Years of Democracy?
One of my favourite statues is the one of Nelson Mandela at the Sandton City shopping centre in Johannesburg. Larger than life, its oversized bronze shoes shimmer in the evening… Read more »
April 22
South Africa: Academics With Disabilities - South African Universities Need an Overhaul to Make Them Genuinely Inclusive
Very little research has been conducted about academics with disabilities working in South African universities. This means their stories, and the challenges they face in the daily… Read more »
South Africa: Meerkat - the South African Radio Telescope That's Transformed Our Understanding of the Cosmos
South Africa's Karoo region is a vast semi-arid area that stretches across four of the country's provinces. It is sparsely populated and renowned for its wide open spaces. Read more »
April 21
South Africa: Esther Mahlangu - How the Famous South African Artist Keeps Her Ndebele Culture Alive
Esther Mahlangu is having a retrospective of her world famous art in Cape Town. Now 88, the South African visual artist is best known for her colourful large-scale murals in the… Read more »