The LNG shock was underestimated. The foreign exchange and inflation feedback loop has proved more challenging than anticipated
A country that exports minerals but imports industrial dependence is not sovereign in any deep sense. A country that sits on energy resources but cannot convert them into stable power, strategic reserves, industrial feedstock, jobs and technological upgrading is not sovereign in any deep sense
African public intellectuals have repeatedly concerned themselves about how African societies can act with purpose and autonomy in a global system that has historically limited their choices
The two proposals reveal that reform debates are marked by a deeper theoretical divergence over whether global legitimacy hinges on balancing power or modernising institutions.
Liza Essers reflects on Goodman Gallery’s legacy, its global ambitions and the challenges of sustaining a space for art, conversation and community
Universities remain among the few institutions in society dedicated to the careful creation and stewardship of knowledge. If they respond to AI primarily through fear and control, they risk undermining the very intellectual curiosity they seek to protect
The rise of darkness indeed splits the world … It divides us into those who believe in humanity and those who feel entitled to do whatever they want
Public budgets are unlikely to expand at the pace required to meet the escalating risks. A larger share of long-term capital will therefore need to come from private sources
Data sovereignty refers to the principle that all data is subject to the laws and regulations of the nation state or jurisdiction in which it is collected. This concept gained prominence in the early 2010s following the Edward Snowden revelations about mass surveillance by the United States
Recently, Canada’s PM Mark Carney declared the end of the rules-based order. It was an outstanding speech. Yet, US unilateralism first soared in the 1980s. The rest of the West complied as long as it was beneficial. Today, it no longer is
Wars unfold in full view of the world with little consequence for the powerful and overwhelming punishment for the weak. To describe this order as functional requires a suspension of reality. The system is not reforming. It is decomposing
Bobby Shabangu’s election to the Wikimedia Foundation Board marks a historic first for Africa and a decisive step toward global knowledge equity
This does not require abandoning old allies but it does require recognising that the world has moved on from the ideological certainties of the past
Rasool is perhaps one of the few South African political figures able to articulate the global consequences of misused narratives
The 99% are done waiting. Billionaire fortunes hit a record high and the G20’s effort on inequality has been deleted
This was the year that was — South Africa’s chequered 2025, a year that ends not with resolution, but with reckoning
Speakers described a system in which legal norms are applied selectively, allowing powerful states and their allies to evade accountability
It takes true evil to send unwitting, unprepared young men, complete strangers to the whole Ukraine-Russia context, into Europe’s worst meat grinder since World War Two
The myth of “white genocide” is deployed as a rhetorical weapon, simultaneously stoking fear, resentment, and a sense of urgency among segments of the American populace
The world is moving from borrowing African aesthetics to embracing African authority
Dangor said the US argument that if one G20 member was absent from the leaders summit, then there could be no consensus, had been voted down
Director general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said South Africa’s G20 presidency highlighted the importance of trade within WTO rules and reforming the system through local mineral beneficiation
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said countries understood ‘that there’s a bilateral issue between South Africa and the US, but that must not, in any shape or form, undermine or imperil the work of the G20’
President Cyril Ramaphosa told delegates that all G20 members except the US had signed the declaration
In an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump’s absence, Ramaphosa warned against allowing ‘anything to diminish the value, the stature or the impact of the first African G20 presidency’
‘There should be no bullying of one nation by another. We are all equal’ the president said after Washington warned Pretoria against pursuing a joint G20 leaders’ statement this weekend
The absence of US President Donald Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin puts the spotlight squarely on President Cyril Ramaphosa and South Africa
President Cyril Ramaphosa has cast the annual forum as a test of whether multilateral cooperation still matters
Advancing climate and sustainability action will require that all arms, spheres and levels of government lead an integrated and interdependent response to climate change
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the uncertainty of the new trading regime had already harmed the country’s economy
The panel, chaired by Nobel prize-winner economist Joseph Stiglitz, will produce recommendations to help bridge the rich-poor divide
For the first time in 14 years, the G20 youth engagement group (Y20) closed its summit last week without issuing a communiqué — the set of recommendations that usually feeds into a declaration by world leaders at their annual summit, this year being hosted in Johannesburg in November. In June, the Y20 submitted a communique […]