The Wicked Conversation
Meaningful consultation with communities: what does it mean?
The recent High Court case that interdicted Shell’s seismic blasting campaign off South Africa’s Wild Coast demonstrates how indigenous communities are using the courts to protect their constitutional and customary rights. Representatives of various indigenous fishing...
Expert analysis
New patterns of political violence in SA
The nature of political violence in South Africa has changed over the decades since the first democratic election in 1994, becoming more intense and also concentrated in the local municipal landscape. The assassinations of counsellors in KZN last year show how those...
South Africa foreign policy: Ambiguous or misunderstood?
Misalignment in South Africa’s foreign policy strategy has been the subject of much recent scrutiny and criticism. Could the issues involved be due to ambiguities in South African foreign policies or are they due to misunderstanding? This article focuses specifically...
Nuclear power lite: Energy solution for South Africa
For more than a decade, poor energy reliability in South Africa has had a crippling effect on the country’s economic development. According to a report by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa experienced 859 hours of rolling...
Can Africa join the digital data revolution?
Governments cannot plan for what they do not know. Or to put it another way, accurate, accessible and intelligible data is critical to inclusive development and governance in Africa. Reliable data is of particular relevance as the continent grapples with policymaking...
Why the Public Protector is being impeached, slowly and controversially
The South African Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, is doing an impressive job at protecting – her seat, that is, not the constitutional democracy. An impeachment enquiry is underway to establish whether there are grounds for her removal from office....
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The Governance Report
Explore Africa’s 54 countries from the Governance Report
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COP26: What should be at the top of Africa’s agenda?
In November, the United Kingdom will host the 26th annual United Nations (UN) global climate summit – called COP – or “Conference of the Parties” in Glasgow. COP26 (delayed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic) has a unique urgency and could prove to be one of the most important conferences of our time. Most experts agree that the…
The Africa Governance Papers
Podcasts
ESG is good for everyone, including the extractive industries
Why is good Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) in fragile...
PODCAST: Africa’s divided response to the war in Ukraine
Ukraine: Africa's divided response We look at Africa's perceived lack of...
PODCAST: West Africa Coups
West Africa Coups In recent years, West Africa has seen a spate of coups and...
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Building from the ground up: on interventions needed following the KZN floods
The consequences of South Africa’s crumbling infrastructure have been palpably witnessed in the devastation caused by the floods in KwaZulu-Natal. Furthermore, in an implicit recognition that corruption and financial mismanagement have become synonymous with...
Mswati’s hand seen in Eswatini’s removal from SADC agenda
As the Southern African Development Community mission in Mozambique nears the end of its term, South Africa, as chair of SADC, called for a summit to be held on 4 and 5 April. Initially, Eswatini was included but its subsequent removal raises questions. King Mswati...
Mitigating Covid-19 during elections in SADC countries
The Covid-19 pandemic has become part of our reality since 2020. Several elections are planned for the SADC region in 2022. With a surge in cases and emerging variants, it is imperative to ensure that elections do not become Covid-19 spreaders. For these Covid-19...
Botswana’s backsliding: A story of governance demise
Trust is difficult to build and easy to destroy. The same is true of democracy and good governance. Botswana has, relatively speaking, been a shining light of democracy on the continent. Until now, that is. Its recent democratic backsliding appears to have gone...
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