Posted inGeneral

Should the UK, US and China abandon South Africa?

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 […]

Posted inGeneralNews/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 […]

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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

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 inBusinessNews/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 […]