By Discent Bajila In 2006, Professor Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo wrote, “That Mugabe must go is thus no longer a dismissible opposition slogan but a strategic necessity that desperately needs urgent legal and constitutional action by Mugabe himself.” Five years down the line, political events might have connived with each other and thrown the learned Mlevu […]
News/Politics
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Tracking economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa
Africa is currently experiencing its most dynamic growth period in recent times. Our continent has achieved an overall growth rate above 6 percent for most of the last ten years. This makes Africa one of the fastest growing regions in the world today, with notable progress in nearly all dimensions of development. Between 2000 and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Refugees, the American dream and a war for Cape freedom
By Shafinaaz Hassim It seems as though, just like tragic Alice in Wander-land, we’ve all fallen down some obscure rabbit hole in South Africa. It’s not impossible, given our national heritage of mining shafts, and it must have happened at some point during the last few weeks while toyi-toying in Twitterville or outside the ConCourt […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Zuma should beware the No.10 jersey in the NEC
He is a hard worker, ambitious, charismatic, an intellectual, a prolific spinner and he’s very rich. He can also be a schemer of note. These are the characteristics of member No. 10 in the ruling ANC’s current National Executive Committee. He also has the business acumen of Mitt Romney and presidential aspirations one can liken […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
South Africa’s development paradigm
Development policy in post-apartheid South Africa has traditionally focused on the debate over the superiority of either state-controlled or market systems. Like many other developing world countries before it, South Africa expected that globalisation and the replacement of traditional industries by modern sectors would become a panacea for economic development in our country. Based on […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Gender Commission finally has commissioners but battles are not over yet
It is a no-brainer that a commission without commissioners ceases to operate. But, by the second half of May, the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) had only two commissioners left, with terms expiring before June 7. So it was déjà vu at the CGE: in 2006-2007, the CGE had no commissioners, for which the blame […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The advent of “democracy” in Egypt
Egypt’s presidential elections this month have been accompanied by the expected media fanfare in Europe and the United States. News outlets are awash with pictures of ink-stained fingers, photographs of people standing in snaking queues to vote through the heat of the day, and headlines hailing the elections as a historic “victory for democracy”. If these representations […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
The geopolitical transformation and significance of South Africa
Since our country’s new democratic transition, South Africa has displayed remarkable levels of socio-political stability, which has resulted in a strong influence in Africa as well as within the international community. South Africa has one of the most advanced and diversified economies in Africa and also accounts for a significant proportion of global foreign trade. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Bad news for good children
‘Suffer little children to come to me…’ That’s the comforting injunction with which Sunday School kiddies are assured that their innocence affords them a special place in their God’s heart, as recorded in the Eezee English of the so-called Good News version of the Bible. In an imaginary Bad News Bible, edited to reflect today’s […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The Zuma portrait and black (male) sexuality
While delivering a keynote address at a conference focusing on Africa in the town of Swanwick in the UK Midlands on Saturday May 26 2012, I asked my audience what news coming out of my country or out of Africa they were aware of at this time. My audience was not aware of the exciting […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
The Spear: SA will not overcome fear by giving into it
Brett Murray’s defaced The Spear stands as a monument to intolerance. After thousands of ANC supporters marched to the Goodman Gallery where it had once been on display, the gallery has agreed it will not be displayed publicly again. While representations of the painting now enjoy the ubiquity of the web, what price have we […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
The link between the environment, poverty and development in South Africa
A 2011 World Bank study estimates that environmental wealth accounts for 26 percent of the total wealth of low-income countries. This is contrasted with 13 percent of wealth in middle-income countries and only 2 percent of wealth in OECD countries. Therefore, investing in sound and equitable environmental management makes good economic sense and is essential to […]