5 January 2018 - Palmer sometimes toned down some of my articles, but otherwise he allowed me as much freedom as I could reasonably have wished for – although on one occasion at an editorial meeting when I suggested yet another political leader, he thumped his desk and declared "I want stories about making money!"
Our own writing in the media
Every year our analysts and policy experts, in promoting new ideas and policies, contribute a wide range of articles to newspapers across South Africa.
4 January 2018 - Profiling the provinces – written by the IRR's head of research, Thuthukani Ndebele – offers a snapshot view of South Africa's nine provinces through the lens of key socio-economic indicators. A brief summary for each province covers data on demographics, the economy, education, health and social security, living conditions, politics and government, as well as crime and security
3 January 2018 - Given the resolution taken at the ANC’s national conference on pushing for ‘expropriation without compensation’, it was fitting that The Star ended the year with Lisa Del Grande’s most interesting contribution on land reform.
8 December 2017 - Ernest Hemingway might have been writing about Eskom’s decline when he explained how bankruptcy happens. ‘Two ways … Gradually and then suddenly’, he wrote in one of his more obscure novels (‘The Sun Also Rises’) in 1926.
7 December 2017 - Many analysts say that South Africa is in serious trouble, but your organisation has been saying that things are not that bad. What is the truth?
6 December 2017 - Mr Maimane went on to suggest that the most important difference between the DA and the African National Congress (ANC) was that the DA “will be able to actually implement these policies”. He has got this exactly back to front. In the event that he becomes the next leader of the ANC, Mr Ramaphosa is far more likely to be able to implement growth (and other) policies than the DA. This is for the simple reason that an ANC led by Mr Ramaphosa is much more likely to win the 2019 national election than is the DA.
5 December 2017 - The reluctance to come out is a rational response to the community's exposure to frightening levels of violence and abuse.
3 December 2017- Mr Maimane went on to suggest that the most important difference between the DA and the African National Congress (ANC) was that the DA "will be able to actually implement these policies". He has got this exactly back to front. In the event that he becomes the next leader of the ANC, Mr Ramaphosa is far more likely to be able to implement growth (and other) policies than the DA. This is for the simple reason that an ANC led by Mr Ramaphosa is much more likely to win the 2019 national election than is the DA.
30 November 2017 - The ANC’s website describes him as “one of the key founding fathers of South Africa’s liberation and constitutional democracy. The celebrations will be used to draw lessons from his life and understand the qualities that made him succeed in uniting the ANC.”2.
The ANC knows very well what needs to be done to avoid junk status. For many years, however – and especially in the past 11 months, when the threat of downgrades has been most acute – it has been doing the opposite. So much so, in fact, that it seems to have been inviting junk status.
29 November 2017 - The ANC conference will not on its own predetermine what might appear to be the obvious shape of things to come
The prioritisation of the ownership issue sidelines all the other empowerment channels that could make an impact