Developing countries that do well in manufacturing are those that have large populations. Nigeria was able to overtake SA as Africa’s biggest economy due to the combined buying power of its huge population
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What do the Nazi invasion of the Rhineland, the fate of Ahmed Timol, and African National Congress support for corruption have in common? They reveal the consequences of failing to nip evil in the bud when it first occurs.
The outcome of the motion of no confidence last night reveals two insights: either the factions have united or the anti-Zuma faction at its fullest count is no more than 20% of the parliamentary caucus. Out of 384 MPs, 177 voted in favour of the motion, 198 against it with 9 abstentions. Much of the narrative to immediately emerge was that 'Zuma is weakened', the 'ANC is split' or the 'ANC is divide
The status of women in South Africa: A mixed bag of success and failure
08 August 2017 - Today, the South African Institute of Race Relations released its August Fast Facts Wathint’ Abafazi, wathint’ Imbokodo. The data reveals a mixed bag of success and failure.
Thousands of cases of fraud, theft, and other crimes need to be investigated, many hundreds of people prosecuted, and plenty imprisoned. Having themselves been captured, neither the so-called "Hawks" nor the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) can be trusted to do the jo
215 DG and ministerial relationships since 2009 under Zuma administration
3 August 2017 - Today, the IRR released a report titled “Political musical chairs: Turnover in the national executive and administration since 2009”.
These days, the news coming out of Venezuela is all bad. The economy is in free-fall, daily rolling protests are rocking the country, people are being beaten, arrested and killed by the hundred, and thousands are fleeing the country in desperation. How did it come to this?
He is not the first person to have put forward this idea, although the rapturous reception that greeted his book when it was published in English in 2014 has given it a whole new lease of life.
The era of artificial intelligence and robotics is upon us and we will neither be able to fully stop it through taxation nor legislation. If South Africa wants to propel its productivity and economic growth by fusing knowledge workers and artificial intelligence, we should start to ensure that our workforce gets proper education, training, and grooming.
The immense power of party headquarters means that the South African political system has become “Sovietised”, in that Parliament and the Cabinet are both accountable to party headquarters in Luthuli House rather than to the electorate
The Cato Institute, the libertarian think-tank based in Washington DC, recently published a set of 24 essays refuting the arguments of the French economist Thomas Piketty in his bestselling book Capital in the 21st Century.
The Charter was adopted as the Congress’s official programme. “Thus the Freedom Charter became the common programme enshrining the hopes and aspirations of all the progressive people of South Africa.”
A furore broke out in March, when several LGBT Youtube vloggers and artists complained that their content is being censored by the video-sharing website’s restricted mode.
According to some news reports Mr Ramaphosa "left no doubt" that those involved in state capture, including President Jacob Zuma, would be prosecuted – not "if " he became president, but "once" he got the top job.
The document then notes: Mr Masuku, in response to a letter from the South African Human Rights Commission dated 11 May 2009 outlining the allegations made by the SAJBD denied that his remarks were tantamount to hate speech and stated that the “constant cry of ‘hate speech’ from the South African Jewish Board
The index would need to be quite sophisticated. It would have to keep track of lies that we pretend to believe even when we know they are not true. This would include the most pervasive of all current South African lies, which is that black economic empowerment (BEE) actually empowers black people. If ever there were an emperor without any clothes, this is he, or indeed she. But nobody wants to say so.
South Africa faces a crisis of fixed investment
6 July 2017 – Levels of fixed investment are falling far behind what is necessary to secure an economic recovery in South Africa. This is the main finding of report released by the IRR this morning.
Flashes of common sense bring out contradictions in the ANC's policy documents
3 July 2017 – IRR analysts released an assessment of nine new policy documents that were published by the African National Congress (ANC) ahead of its National Policy Conference currently underway.
Built on a large piece of rolling Highveld grassland which Tladi's father-in-law bought in 1905 in this suburb north of Johannesburg, near what is now called Ferndale, the house was expropriated and the family forcibly removed to Soweto in 1956.
The NEC offers none of this. Instead, it highlights a managerial type of conflict. The battle between the leading contenders, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, is framed as a fight – corruption versus clean governance, consultative processes versus ministerial fiat, radicalism versus moderation. Business-wise, these concerns are about ethical leadership, stakeholder relations and change management. However, little of these concerns determines the political agenda.
#ANCPolicy17 #ANCNPC – IRR analysis and socio-economic data support
30 June 2017 – As the African National Congress (ANC) goes to its policy conference today a lot of attention will be focused on the extent to which living standards in South Africa have changed under ANC governance.
In a letter to Business Day on June 20, 2017, John Louw asks incredulously how a charter can force mining companies to pay dividends over a 10-year period to facilitate the repayment of finance extended to empowerment “partners”, with a penalty if the dividends fall short of extinguishing such debt at the end of the period?
A person’s race is what he declares it to be. The Constitution allows measures to promote the achievement of equality that are "designed to protect or advance persons … disadvantaged by unfair discrimination.…"
'There is no monopoly on pain visited on a people from prejudice and hate: the Rwandans, Cambodians and Armenians, to name but a few, can attest to that'
Service delivery successes were extraordinary. The number of households living in a formal house more than doubled after 1996. In 1996, there were 5.8 million households living in a formal house.
Murders of police officers have decreased over the past 20 years
28 June 2017 – The rate at which police officers are being murdered has fallen significantly over the past twenty years, according to the latest South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR).
The chamber says it will challenge the charter in court. It has also called on the African National Congress (ANC) to intervene. The problem is that the mining industry was co-opted a long time ago. It did so when it bought into the ANC's racial "transformation" process by adopting the first mining charter back in 2004.
Water and electricity is being rationed. The shortage of medical supplies is so high that the United Nations has been asked for assistance. Thirty percent of children are malnourished. In 2016, the average citizen lost nearly 9 kilograms in weight.
Miners invest very little in telling this story and this mistake is a primary reason why they have become the target of so much media and activist hostility.
More South Africans receive grants than have jobs – a recipe for chaos and violence
21 June 2017 – There are more people receiving social grants in South Africa than there are people with jobs. This is the finding from the latest South Africa Survey published by the IRR last week.