Disability is an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions, denoting the negative aspects of the interaction between an individual and the context in which they find themselves.1 The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) is a World Health Organization (WHO) framework which, rather than classifying people solely by their medical […]
The rise of the fast fashion industry in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has had enormous social, economic and environmental consequences. It is a huge industry built on over-production, overconsumption, and the excessive use of natural resources to the detriment of the environment; and it engages in exploitative labour practices in rampant pursuit […]
The 16th of June 2026 marked 50 years since the Soweto uprising, when thousands of school children took to the streets to protest the imposition of Afrikaans as a compulsory medium of instruction under the apartheid government’s system of Bantu Education, and were met with bullets. The deep-seated cause was the Bantu Education Act of […]
Gender Based Violence (GBV) has been declared a disaster and a pandemic which casts a long shadow of violence and suffering across our society intergenerationally. Gendered norms are not independent of the social, economic and cultural conditions in which they are shaped. Tandi Nzimande, the Chief Executive Officer at the GBVF Response Fund, emphasizes that […]
“Since 2008 – when 62 people, including 21 South Africans, 11 Mozambicans, 5 Zimbabweans and 3 Somalis, were killed – South Africa has been grappling with intermittent but widespread xenophobic harassment and violence against African and Asian foreign nationals living in the country, whether refugees, asylum seekers, or both documented and undocumented migrants”.1 BP 652 […]
The Congo Basin is one of the most strategically important ecological areas on the planet. As a true pillar of global climate balance, this vast forested region plays a crucial role in climate regulation, the preservation of biodiversity, and the survival of millions of people who depend on its natural resources. BP 651 – An […]
The notion of the deep state has become common in recent decades. It refers to the existence, real or imagined, of an unelected and permanent coterie of state officials, often including members of the security services, who conspire to run a country independently of, and even contrary to, the intentions of the duly elected governing […]
In an interview on 14th April, the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Njabulo Nzuza, disclosed what sounded, to all intents and purposes, like his department’s intention to invite Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) holders to apply for permanent residence in South Africa.2 These applications would then be judged on a case-by-case basis. BP 649 – Zimbabwe […]
Gender-based violence (GBV) has been declared a national disaster, with women in the rural areas carrying a disproportionate burden due to entrenched poverty, patriarchal norms, and systemic inequality. Deeply rooted gender norms, societal expectations, and historical trauma from apartheid reinforce power imbalances and perpetuate this violence. Gender-based violence is one of rural women’s greatest challenges. […]
Spread over the weeks of March 2026, a number of interesting comments emerged in the public domain, centred on what Dr Naledi Pandor called “a more humane policy framework”2 with regard to migrants and foreign nationals, and a sharper critique of the closely allied area of xenophobia. Indeed, ‘humane’ is a word used frequently by […]
