Unemployment, high poverty levels, high inflation and the energy crisis will all weigh heavily on the finance minister’s mind as he endeavours to balance the books and to give a little something to all the competing interests without breaking the bank. The articles below highlight some of the areas that may dominate government’s spending plans. […]
The beginning of the school year sadly brought with it more indefensible xenophobic, anti-constitutional activity, this time aimed in the main against foreign nationals in the Gauteng area. According to the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association, several schools in that region refused to admit the children of the ZEP holders to school this year on […]
Late in December 2022, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) announced that South Africa was experiencing measles outbreaks as a result of low vaccine coverage. Over 300 cases had been reported. Limpopo recorded the first few cases at the beginning of October 2022, with further cases being reported in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State and […]
Despite the customary shambolic start, with registrations and opening speeches running many hours behind schedule, the ANC’s 55th National Conference completed its main task – the election of a national leadership core – surprisingly smoothly and without obvious rancour. Democracy Digest 8 – The ANCs National Conference by Mike Pothier 2
In recent weeks, as load-shedding has intensified, there has been a growing narrative seeking to blame Eskom, and specifically its management, for the crisis. At the governing party’s National Executive Committee meeting last Friday, some members argued that the company’s Chief Executive, Andre de Ruyter, should be dismissed; as a lawyer, rather than an engineer, […]
Despite the customary shambolic start, with registrations and opening speeches running many hours behind schedule, the ANC’s 55th National Conference completed its main task – the election of a national leadership core – surprisingly smoothly and without obvious rancour. Democracy Digest 8 – The ANCs National Conference by Mike Pothier 2
2022 has been the year during which most of the world emerged from the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. People crept out of their homes. Some went back to their offices and other places of employment, some continued to work at home, while others had no work to which to return. The masks came […]
This year the US State Department issued the 22nd edition of the Trafficking in Persons Report. It is once again a comprehensive analysis of the scourge of human trafficking and the attempts of various countries, 188 in all, to combat it. BP 560 – The 2022 Report on Trafficking in Persons by Peter-John Pearson
South Africa’s first democratic national and pro- vincial elections in 1994 were held under a pure proportional representation system in terms of which political parties were awarded seats in direct proportion to the share of the vote they managed to secure. This was regarded as the only fair and reliable way of gauging the strength […]
When Statistics South Africa conducted its National Household Travel Survey in 2013,1 more than 10% of Western Cape households surveyed reported using trains – in 2020 this dropped to just 3.1%. In 2013, 13% of workers used trains as their main mode of transport, but in 2020 that percentage dropped to less than 2%. The […]
