South Africa is leaning over the edge of a political cliff as the president loses the support of key allies in the tripartite alliance. His attack dogs, such as Shaun Abrahams in the National Prosecuting Authority, Collen Maine in the ANC Youth League and Bathabile Dlamini in the ANC Woman’s League, look increasingly like poodles […]
Marius Oosthuizen
Marius Oosthuizen is a faculty member and researcher at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. He teaches leadership, strategy and ethics, and heads up the Future of Business in SA Project. He is passionate about ethical and strategic leadership and writes about political-economy and current affairs.
Marius completed the Oxford Scenarios Programme at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK. He holds a masters in strategic foresight from Regent University, Virginia Beach, US an honours bachelor in systematic theology from the University of South Africa and is pursuing a masters in applied social and political ethics.
His expertise is in the field of stakeholder dialogue, scenario planning, strategic foresight and systems thinking. He is a member of the advisory council of the Association of Professional Futurists and recent participant in the London-based School of International Futures’ Scenario Retreat on European Union Foreign Policy.
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Open letter to Jeff Radebe, #FeesMustFall students and vice-chancellors
Minister Jeff Radebe you are heading up the ministerial task team to resolve the crisis on our university campuses. Good, thank you. This is a step in the right direction. Students and champions of #FeesMustFall, you have taken up the challenge of agitating for a fundamental change in the future prospects of your generation of […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Selfless leadership could fix South Africa
The #FeesMustFall movement is a dress rehearsal for the revolution South Africa will face unless we fix our socio-economic conundrum of inequality, poverty and unemployment. This will require leadership! It will require “bridge builders” who are not beholden to vested interests and can lead for the common good. It will require technical skill to empower […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
#Fallist culture: The emergence of African fascist nationalism
On how notions of pan-Africanist identity, post-apartheid liberation ideology and demographics are coalescing to give rise to African fascist nationalism Across Africa we’ve witnessed the worst of political permutations as she vaunted herself out from under colonial exploitation. In many instances pseudo-democracy was achieved as a facade for a new black capitalist elite that mobilised the […]
Posted inGeneral
Mr. CEO! Can the ANC still control the streets?
Some months ago a fairly high ranking government official, who shall not be named, told me “the ANC is the only party that can control the streets”. They were making the case for why the EFF and the DA were side shows and only the ANC could capture the hearts and minds of the masses. […]
Posted inGeneral
What changes in SA mean for business in the medium-term
Predicting the future is impossible. Forecasting plausible alternative scenarios is possible and can be useful in fostering strategic foresight. Using the so-called “three-horizons model”, South Africa can be seen to be moving from a status quo (horizon 1) marked by; negotiated settlement, ANC hegemony, post-Apartheid economic resurgence and consolidation and rainbow optimism, to a new […]
Posted inGeneral
The Federal Republic of South Africa
As South Africa heads into the local government elections this week the country seems poised to enter a new era in the shape of our democratic landscape. This period will be marked by factionalism-cum-coalition politics. A speed dating version of alliance forming in which unconventional power brokers get to decide who runs a city, who […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mugabe’s only path to true statesmanship is his death
Robert Mugabe came to power as president of Zimbabwe in 1987. Next year, if Southern Africa’s Methuselah lives until then, will mark his thirtieth year in office and what has become a pathetic downward spiral into the abuse of state power and the obliteration of his nation’s fortunes. President Mugabe is famed as having said […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Racism, an idea whose time has come, again
As Britain votes to leave the EU, Polish immigrants have come under fire with xenophobic and racist attacks in the bastion of parliamentary democracy. This is no coincidence, as millions of migrants from north Africa, eastern Europe and the Middle East pressurises the once hospitable European community on issues of immigration and race relations, there […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Tshwane violence was predicted, now how to fix it
In 2013 we wrote that by 2016 there would be “pockets of political violence”, accompanied by “economic gangsterism … looting and vandalism of private property” in South Africa. We argued that “foreign direct investment will stall”, inflation will rise sharply, the “EFF thrive” and that xenophobia, racism and tribalism would surface. Sound familiar? We arrived […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, General, News/Politics
It’s a simple choice: Are we going to make South Africa great?
Last week I wrote about racism in our public discourse and I was accused of merely describing the problem and negating the role of politics in fixing our economy. Well, here is a stab at a solution: – Every South African corporation with a national footprint should employ one intern aged 20-29 for every 10 […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
We are rebuilding an economic apartheid instead of dismantling it
In the mid-1980s South Africa’s prime overdraft rate went to 25%, inflation rocketed to 20.9% and the apartheid government abolished the financial rand exchange rate system in 1983 as international banks refused to renew credit lines for South Africa. The world was punishing South Africa for being a pariah, a scum state, violating the fundamental […]