2024 has been a bumper year for elections, with people in a number of heavyweight democracies going to the polls: Indonesia, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, the USA, Mexico, Pakistan, and the world’s largest democracy, India. Southern African has also had a larger than usual number of elections, with South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritius, the […]
Over the first few weeks of November 2024, two topics have dominated the local news. Both have quickly become lightning rods for a fresh outpouring of xenophobic activity. Firstly, the horrific spike in deaths and severe illness, especially amongst children, due to eating toxic foods sold mostly by spaza shops. BP 614 Scapegoating – The […]
The fifth, and what was hoped to be the final, meeting of 175 countries (the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee Five for a Global Plastics Treaty) seeking to produce the first legally binding treaty on plastic pollution, ended on 1st December without the hoped-for agreement. Negotiations will resume in 2025, and it was accepted that the ‘Chairperson’s […]
2024 has been marked by several spikes in anti-immigrant sentiment, political posturing, scapegoating, and the ongoing practice at several levels of the politics of exclusion. The elections in May gave political parties the opportunity to canvass around anti-migrant rhetoric. In some campaigns it was ramped up dangerously and gave an excuse for xenophobic activity. Refugee […]
It is certainly not surprising that the different parties in the Government of National Unity have failed to reach consensus on some major policy positions. The coalition is only a few months old, and some of the areas of disagreement are deep-seated and almost defining of the parties concerned. Democracy Digest 13 Problems with Policy […]
In February 2023, the electricity crisis in South Africa was declared a national state of disaster so as to address the economic impact caused by the severe levels of loadshedding. Although this declaration has since been terminated, procuring reliable energy sources has remained crucial to achieve long-term energy security. BP 613 South Africa’s Nuclear Energy […]
The potential economy pay-off of the cannabis and hemp industries is well documented in Europe and America. Finally, South Africa is getting its ducks in a row to join the party. In May this year, the President signed the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act 7 of 2024 into law, which establishes a legal framework for […]
South Africa leads the list of the top ten countries with the highest amount of time spent on social media.1 Children2 today are growing up immersed in a digital world that is taking a toll on their mental health. BP 612 Children and Mental Well-being in a Digital World by Lois Law
In these last days of November 2024, the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee will meet in Busan, South Korea, to develop an internationally legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. Environment Digest 46 – The Politics of Plastic by Peter-John Pearson
In 2024 the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence runs from 25th November to 10th December. The theme for 2024 is ‘Towards 30 Years of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: Unite to End Violence Against Women’. This pernicious form of violence remains all-pervasive in South Africa Refugee Digest 88 – Migrants, […]
