The new whistleblower Bill is progressive but the consultation period (which closes on 14 May 2024) should be used to push for improved legal aid access, stronger independent support structures, robust data security, additional support measures and pre-emptive protections
Universities now operate amid electricity instability, water risk, municipal decay, crime, cyber vulnerability and public distrust
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
In an era when cynicism too often dominates public discourse and doubt easily overshadows progress, the facts speak volumes. South Africa is attracting capital, rebuilding confidence and laying the foundations for a new era of industrialisation, energy security and inclusive growth
New and emerging technologies should serve peace, not conflict
Previous councils failed to act and hold the vice-chancellor accountable. They bear responsibility for many of the challenges now facing Fort Hare
I remain close to the places where ordinary black life meets the police, the farmer, the mine and the state face to face. That ground has no patience for fashionable radicalism. That ground exposes every counterfeit. Speaking from the safety of a donor-funded human rights NGO is ‘Butlerism’ on steroids. So is abandoning the Black Land First formation for the security of a career in Parliament
For all we know, the higher education sector might even have some senior managers who aid and abet institutional capture, just like the Madlanga Commission has outed some high-ranking police officers alleged to have facilitated police capture
This influence goes beyond funding. It shows up in how systems for decision-making are designed, how public policies are shaped and even who sits at the table. Over time, this creates a situation where African initiatives remain African in name but are partly shaped by external actors in how they function
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
Presidential terms are to be extended to seven years, with Mnangagwa’s current tenure lengthened by two, while parliament and local government terms are similarly prolonged
The South African government has navigated this period remarkably well. It has not capitulated to any of the stronger blocs, whilst retaining its dignity and independent views
Political entrepreneurs, while integrated and integral to both sides, are in the unique position in which they are neither. accountable to an electoral constituency nor the ground soldiers pulling triggers and exchanging envelopes
In the ruins of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Nelson Gashagaza survived by becoming someone else’s child. In this two-part series as Rwanda commemorates Kwibuka32, he tells a personal story on a performed kinship, ordinary horror and the meaning of belonging
As the global order becomes more multipolar, opportunities for African agency are expanding. Yet these opportunities will only translate into meaningful influence if African states strengthen their coordination, develop sophisticated negotiating strategies and engage proactively in shaping the rules of global governance
America’s scale of its invented narratives are hard to match. Trump has normalised the idea that rhetorical bombast matters more than accuracy
Most cyberattacks succeed because they exploit human behaviour rather than technical weaknesses. Consumers are the frontline of defence against cybercrime
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.
For many African public intellectuals such as Steve Biko, Leopold Senghor, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, political independence represented more than the transfer of formal authority from colonial administrations to newly sovereign states
It is also clear to many people, following revelations at the Madlanga Commission and corruption scandals in the Department of Defence and Military Veterans, that both the SAPS and SANDF are deeply compromised institutions in need of wholesale reform if South Africans’ trust in them is to be restored
Coverage of Ukrainian children often fixes blame on Russia and leaves the conduct of the Ukrainian government in the background, even though the evidence of exploitation, forced separation, weak oversight and institutional damage inside Ukraine’s own system is extensive and public
Transnational commitments are celebrated, while attachment to the nation‑state is treated with suspicion
Israel chose targets at the heart of domestic survival because its planners know that fuel in a capital powers ambulances, clinics, refrigeration, generators, pumping systems, buses, food distribution and the hidden routines through which a city keeps people alive
History shows that when South Africans unite behind a shared national mission, extraordinary outcomes become possible. Our country has enormous potential but unlocking it requires deliberate action
It was at The World that he found himself standing alongside one of South Africa’s most towering figures in the press, Percy Qoboza. To serve as deputy to a legend requires a particular kind of strength — not the strength that competes but the strength that complements. Latakgomo had that strength in abundance
The judiciary and legal academy entrenched the same exclusion. They protected the existing order through property law, constitutional abstraction and procedural sanctity. They elevated form above the history of conquest. They treated settler possession as the legal present and African dispossession as historical background
Despite the daily life challenges, it is also important to recognise that autism comes with its own “superpowers” that students can use to their advantage. Students with autism may be highly intelligent
The top performers are evolving into more complex and diverse spaces than traditional malls. They are becoming places where people don’t just shop but also spend time, live and connect
His vision for America is defined as much by whom he lets in as by whom he keeps out
Calling this sophistry is not polemical. Sophistry was never about lying outright. It was about persuasive coherence in the service of authority. IR excels at this. It teaches how to speak about power in ways that preserve its prerogatives, how to critique without consequence and how to manage domination without ever calling it by name
Good Friday is the moment when Christ, in his pain, identifies with the pains of the people and atones for our sins
One dares not remain silent in the face of the intolerable dehumanisation and genocide of the people of Palestine, which has led us to the brink of a world war. Nor should men and women of faith remain silent as truth is distorted to advance the purposes of the powerful