tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/pands-53229/articlesP&S – The Conversation2018-03-29T11:02:39Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/941792018-03-29T11:02:39Z2018-03-29T11:02:39ZJail time for South African woman using racist slur sets new precedent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212631/original/file-20180329-189807-rcwqg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African court rules that racism is a criminal offence.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A South African estate agent Vicky Momberg was caught on video <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/vicki-momberg-sentenced-to-an-effective-2-years-in-prison-for-racist-rant-20180328">verbally abusing </a> a black policeman. She used the word <a href="http://thelawthinker.com/south-africa-calling-people-kaffirs-is-a-crime/">‘kaffirs’</a> repeatedly during her tirade against men who were trying to assist. The word is deeply offensive and considered the most racist in South Africa. The state brought a case of crimen injuria against Momberg and a court has sentenced her to three years in jail (one suspended). This makes her the first person in the country to be jailed for this offence. Thabo Leshilo asked legal experts Penelope Andrews, René Koraan and Chantelle Feldhaus to explain the significance of the judgment.</em></p>
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<p><strong>What is the significance of the judgment?</strong> </p>
<p><em>Penelope Andrews:</em> The significance of the judgment is substantive and symbolic. It’s substantive in that the crime committed by the accused is punished severely. Symbolically it sends a message that racism is not to be tolerated. In fact, one could go so far as to say that the law establishes that anyone using the “k” word publicly to abuse and humiliate will be severely punished.</p>
<p><em>René Koraan and Chantelle Feldhaus:</em> Past cases indicate that the verbal form of crimen injuria is not that serious. But the Momberg sentence is a first of its kind in South Africa. She was sentenced to three years imprisonment of which one year was suspended for a period of three years, on condition that she did not commit crimen injuria again. In effect this means that Momberg will serve two years imprisonment.</p>
<p><strong>What is crimen injuria in South Africa and its basis?</strong></p>
<p><em>Penelope Andrews:</em> According to <a href="http://www.loot.co.za/product/jonathan-burchell-principles-of-criminal-law/vjmg-3196-g260?PPC=Y&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8JyXxJGR2gIV6JztCh3eDwyiEAAYAiAAEgIBIfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">principles of criminal law</a> crimen injuria consists in unlawfully and intentionally impairing the dignity or privacy of another person.</p>
<p><em>René Koraan and Chantelle Feldhaus:</em> South Africa’s criminal law system is based on common law and statutory law. Common law offences include abduction, arson, bigamy, fraud, incest, housebreaking, rape, robbery, and treason. Statutory crimes include crimes such as tax fraud and prevention of organised crime.</p>
<p>Crimen injuria (or iniuria) is a crime under the South African common law, defined as the act of <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/faqdetail.php?fid=9">“unlawfully and intentionally impairing the dignity or privacy of another.”</a>.</p>
<p>Crimen injuria provides the basis of protecting the constitutional right to human dignity in criminal prosecutions. It can happen either verbally or by deed. Importantly, crimen injuria should be distinguished from criminal defamation which has to do with the good name or reputation of a person. Both the right to privacy and dignity are protected in different sections of the <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng.pdf">Constitution of the Republic of South Africa</a>.</p>
<p>To determine if a person’s dignity was impaired the victim should, firstly, have been aware of what the accused was doing to them and secondly, the victim should have felt degraded or humiliated because of what the accused did to them. This is also objectively determined by the court. The court then considers whether a reasonable person in the same circumstances of the accused would also have felt humiliated or degraded by the conduct of the accused.</p>
<p>It seems that currently, the most serious form of verbal crimen injuria is the use of the word <em>kaffir</em>. It is evident from case law that calling a police officer the ‘k’-word in South Africa is regarded as serious enough to warrant criminal proceedings.</p>
<p><strong>How does it differ from hate speech?</strong> </p>
<p><em>Penelope Andrews:</em> Crimen injuria is a criminal offence. Hate speech is a civil offence. Rather, it’s prohibited in the constitution as well as legislation that protects people against <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/2000-004.pdf">unfair discrimination</a>. Hate speech also has a very specific definition, whereas (crimen inuria) is arguably more broadly defined.</p>
<p><em>René Koraan and Chantelle Feldhaus:</em> The Constitution promotes free speech, but that doesn’t extend to hate based on “race”, ethnicity, gender or religion. South Africa is also a signatory to the International Convention on the Elimination of <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CERD.aspx">All Forms of Racial Discrimination</a>, which requires countries to make racial superiority or hatred punishable by law.</p>
<p>South Africa has drafted a new bill to cover this. <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/hcbill/hatecrimes.html">The hate-speech bill</a> being considered by parliament provides for the criminal prosecution of people who commit the offences of hate crime and hate speech. It defines hate speech as</p>
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<p>an intentional communication (including speech) that advocates hatred or is threatening, abusive or insulting towards any other person or group of persons; ranging from race and gender to social origin.</p>
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<p>According to the bill, a guilty first offender may receive a maximum of three years prison sentence and up to ten years for a subsequent conviction.</p>
<p><strong>What are the implications of the precedent-setting judgment?</strong> </p>
<p><em>Penelope Andrews:</em> There may be several implications. First, the judgment is a clear statement that the use of racial slurs and the impairment of human dignity will not be tolerated. One could argue that there is now an unequivocal zero tolerance for the use of the “k” word. </p>
<p>Second, the implication may be that all kinds of racial slurs, that involve not just anti-black hatred, but also anti-semitic, xenophobic, anti-female and homophobic slurs, will not be tolerated. </p>
<p>The third implication is that there is a strong sensitising and educational effect. The airwaves and social media have already been abuzz with commentary since the sentence was passed. Crimen injuria has become a household term as people argue about the law’s meaning, the punishment, what constitutes (crimen inuria) and whether the judgment was fair.</p>
<p><em>René Koraan and Chantelle Feldhaus:</em> The court sent a message that racism is not just inappropriate, but it is criminal. The hope must be that the penny drops for South Africans that their actions carry big repercussions. The judgment and the sentence highlight the fact that South Africa needs to put hate crime legislation in place. It’s already at an advanced stage but it needs to be promulgated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94179/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Past cases indicate that verbal crimen injuria is not that serious. But a landmark sentence in South Africa has changed that.Penelope Andrews, Dean of Law and Professor, University of Cape TownChantelle Feldhaus, Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, North-West UniversityRené Koraan, Senior Lecturer: Criminal Law, North-West UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/938912018-03-28T12:15:13Z2018-03-28T12:15:13ZNairobi is at risk from another cholera outbreak. Why this isn’t necessary<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212401/original/file-20180328-109182-15zpdk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Slums like Mathare in Nairobi are particularly prone to flooding.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Daniel Irungu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Flooding has affected households across Nairobi – even in the city’s high-end diplomatic enclaves. Its effects range. In addition to the <a href="http://floodlist.com/africa/kenya-floods-march-2018">deaths and serious injuries</a>, vexing traffic jams have been intensified due to swamped roadways and stalled cars and schools have also been forced to close.</p>
<p>But nobody is more affected than people living in the city’s massive informal settlements, or slums. It’s estimated that slums are home to about <a href="http://aphrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/NCSS2-FINAL-Report.pdf">two out of every three</a> of Nairobi’s four million inhabitants.</p>
<p>Urban flooding has intensified because the city’s growth has outpaced improvements in infrastructure. Clogged drains, illegal construction that obstructs waterways and poor management of solid waste are just the tip of the iceberg. </p>
<p>In the slums, open sewers overflow quickly, bringing flash floods with them. Harmful waste gets washed into the rivers that snake through the city – rivers from which some people draw water to wash clothes, prepare food, irrigate their crops and livestock.</p>
<p>Because of these conditions the city is under constant threat of another major cholera outbreak. In 2017 <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/kenya/cholera-kenya-disease-outbreak-news-11-december-2017">more than 4,000 cases</a> were reported across the country, 70% of them in Nairobi. Nairobi also had a cholera outbreak <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/counties/nairobi/government-apparent-attempt-cover-up-cholera-outbreak-weston/1954174-3986100-11xk3ci/index.html">in a high-end hotel</a>.</p>
<p>Cholera – transmitted when people ingest food or water contaminated with fecal matter containing cholera germs – can be deadly if not treated immediately. </p>
<p>To prevent this happening again, Kenya needs to do two things as a matter of urgency. It needs to strengthen its health system so that it’s able to respond to potential cholera outbreaks. It also needs to improve infrastructure development planning to prevent potential disasters that could lead to health hazards. </p>
<h2>Health</h2>
<p>Cholera is treatable, and more importantly, preventable. But on several occasions Kenya’s health system has not been well prepared to respond to cholera outbreaks in Nairobi. This has included a failure to identify and trace people who have the disease as well as the reporting and management of suspected cases. </p>
<p>The way the <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/counties/nairobi/government-apparent-attempt-cover-up-cholera-outbreak-weston/1954174-3986100-11xk3ci/index.html">2017 cholera outbreak</a> was managed provides useful pointers about what can go wrong. Firstly, the first reported cases were met with denial. This included public health officials. On top of this people who had contracted the disease weren’t properly isolated and there wasn’t adequate contact tracing and treatment. This means that more cases showed up in different locations.</p>
<p>The pattern seems to be repeating itself. Even though <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/03/23/panic-after-fifth-cholera-case-is-reported-in-naivasha_c1735297">five cholera cases were reported last week in Naivasha</a>, a town only 100 kilometres from Nairobi, the city doesn’t seem to have an effective plan in place. It should already have launched a concerted public health education campaign to promote hygiene and sanitation. It should also have got treatment facilities ready. </p>
<h2>Infrastructure</h2>
<p>Even though the heavy rains were <a href="http://www.meteo.go.ke/pdf/rainAdvisory.pdf">forecast</a> there’s little evidence that the city made plans to mitigate against serious risks to health and safety. </p>
<p>This isn’t a new challenge. One school <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/education/Nairobi-schools-close-over-flooding/2643604-4344392-125cthfz/index.html">administrator</a> in Viwandani slum for example reported that flood waters had created unsafe conditions for learners at her school every year for the past five years. The school has been forced to close each time.</p>
<p>Following the onset of flooding this month, <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/counties/nairobi/Flood-mitigation-fund-Nairobi/1954174-4345842-cj1hmoz/index.html">Nairobi City County set aside</a> Kshs 194 million (USD$1.9 million) for emergency services. Of this only Kshs 32 million (USD$300 000) will be spent on maintaining the drainage system. </p>
<p>But this is too little, too late. People depend on government to be proactive, not reactive. It would have been more efficient –- and possibly cheaper –- to make these improvements during the dry season and before the onset of the rains. </p>
<p>The government needs to take weather forecasts seriously by planning, budgeting, and implementing infrastructural improvements to prevent flooding from happening in the first place, and to manage them better when they do happen. </p>
<h2>The threat of epidemics</h2>
<p>The tools to make sure the right preparations are made are all in place. For example, the county government has the mandate (and the legal tools) to enforce infrastructural standards, the maintenance of sanitation facilities, the provision of health education as well as the provision of medical care. </p>
<p>This is not too much to expect. But the political will seems to be missing.</p>
<p>This means that Kenyans are unnecessarily put at risk. Epidemic outbreaks can severely tax even the strongest health system, and require coordination at all levels both in terms of service delivery and awareness. Epidemics can escalate quickly in countries where health systems are weak. The Ebola emergency in West Africa is a case in point. </p>
<p>Continued outbreaks of cholera in this day and age are an indictment on Kenya’s lack of commitment to contain diseases that can be prevented. The health challenges that Nairobi can expect in the wake of heavy rains are largely preventable. And even when they do happen, such as when there’s a cholera outbreak, the country has sufficient resources to respond adequately. </p>
<p><em>Carol Wainaina, a research officer at African Population Health Research Center, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abdhalah Ziraba does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The health challenges that Nairobi can expect in the wake of heavy rains are largely preventable.Abdhalah Ziraba, Associate Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937972018-03-27T13:09:01Z2018-03-27T13:09:01ZRamaphosa has started the clean up job. But can he turn the state around?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211567/original/file-20180322-54875-kjykfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, is on a mission to rebuild a battered party and state. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s new President, Cyril Ramaphosa, is presently receiving numerous <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/opinion-and-analysis/2018-03-03-ramaphosas-cabinet-clean-up-shows-promising-signs-of-what-lies-ahead/">plaudits</a> on how he’s handling the transition from the troubled Jacob Zuma presidency.</p>
<p>Zuma’s generals have been scattered, his underlings fleeing the battlefield. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, against whom Ramaphosa fought for the leadership and under whose wing Zuma thought he would be able to shelter had she won, has been brought into the <a href="https://www.ujuh.co.za/cyril-ramaphosas-new-cabinet-a-balancing-game-with-key-victories/">cabinet</a> and safely neutralised.</p>
<p>The ousting of Zuma has also had a dramatic impact on the major opposition parties. Both the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have been deprived of their strongest electoral attraction. </p>
<p>The DA is now in a state of major disarray, attempting to resolve its various internal squabbles. For the moment at least – it seems to be heading towards a bloody nose at the 2019 election. </p>
<p>The EFF has played the brief post-Zuma moment more skillfully, most notably by getting the ANC to back its motion in parliament, albeit with amendments, in favour of expropriation of land without compensation. But Ramaphosa has responded in kind by subtly extending an invitation to the EFF to rejoin the ANC, a ploy which will continually compel it to justify its continuing existence, especially if the ruling party continues to steal its policy clothes.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Ramaphosa continues to bask in the admiration of whites and seems likely to bring disaffected elements of the black middle class back into the ANC. He has brought back hopes of better days for a previously despondent South Africa. </p>
<p>He is master of all the surveys, Mr Action and Mr Clean. </p>
<p>Yet the new president is no fool. He knows that his major challenge, after the depradations of the Zuma years, is to work towards making what he termed in his inauguration speech, a “<a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2018-02-16-in-full--read-cyril-ramaphosas-first-state-of-the-nation-address/">capable state</a>”. This revolves around addressing challenges of governance, the party as well as the economy.</p>
<h2>Low hanging fruit</h2>
<p>Ramaphosa has had little option but to first turn to addressing immediate problems within the state. The early steps have been relatively easy. The most straight forward task has been to shuffle the cabinet. By doing so he was able to expel or marginalise ministers known for their loyalty to Zuma or their incompetence, while bringing in replacements of known ability and integrity. </p>
<p>He has also moved swiftly to address crises at major parastatals, notably at the power utility Eskom and South African Airways to prevent them defaulting on their loans to banks and other creditors. With new boards now in place, emergency measures have been taken to prevent financial meltdown. </p>
<p>Likewise, Ramaphosa has given notice that he is determined to restore the South African Revenue Service to its former glory. Getting rid of the top brass, notwithstanding the resistance of Zuma’s point man, the commissioner Tom Moyane, should not be too difficult. But, as within the parastatals, it is the problem of what to do with Zuma cronies at lower levels of management that is likely to be more difficult and more time consuming. </p>
<p>Zuma cronies who have been embedded in state organisations for a long time will have set up procurement linkages that will need to be examined closely. This will provoke resistance, some of it overt, much of it covert, for whatever the cronyistic patterns of procurement, they will have been celebrated as black empowerment. Their disruption will be stigmatised as reactionary. Pravin Gordhan, the new minister of state owned enterprises, will probably have to get tough, and the fights could get nasty. </p>
<h2>ANC politics</h2>
<p>The other set of challenges which Ramaphosa faces have to do with his party, the ANC. His narrow victory at the party’s national conference was only secured because he did a deal with David Mabuza, then Premier of Mpumalanga, now promoted to <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/who-is-our-new-deputy-president-elect-david-mabuza-20180226">deputy president</a>. </p>
<p>Ramaphosa will, in time, find that this kind of backing was instrumental. Loyalty will come at a price, and Ramaphosa will have to play his cards carefully. </p>
<p>He may have to make alliances with a lot of party power holders he doesn’t like. This may include ceding control of certain provinces to party barons so that their patronage patterns are left intact. </p>
<p>This is a problem because, as Ramaphosa knows, some provincial governments, such as the Eastern Cape, are grossly inefficient. They are staffed by people who simply lack the capacity to do their jobs – but who have strong connections with local party bosses. Disrupting such networks will take determination and courage, and will meet politically costly pushback. Expect little to be done this side of an election.</p>
<h2>The economy</h2>
<p>Perhaps Ramaphosa’s most formidable challenge is how to kick start economic growth. He has been lauded as the man who, with experience in both the trade union movement and in business, can bring labour and capital together around a new consensus. </p>
<p>It’s a nice idea, and one boosted by Ramaphosa’s smooth talk of convening a summit around the economy. But if it is going to be more than just another talk shop, he is going to have to do an awful lot of arm twisting. Both sides are going to have make concessions. </p>
<p>South Africa’s major corporations have been sitting pretty for years. Despite the horrors of the Zuma years, the stock market has <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2017/07/31/south-africas-stock-market-defies-recession-scales-record-highs/">boomed</a>. The country became a low investment, high profit economy, characterised by the power of huge <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-economy-is-badly-skewed-to-the-big-guys-how-it-can-be-changed-92365">cartels</a>. </p>
<p>Ramaphosa has to convince them that they have to get out of the comfort zone, warning that if they don’t, levels of inequality and unemployment are such that South Africa may explode. Capitalism is going to hit big trouble if they don’t look beyond the short-term bottom line and commit to serious levels of investment, combining this with major commitments to labour-intensive employment and training. </p>
<p>The president is also going to have the difficult job of convincing the unions that they have a greater responsibility to address unemployment. To date their emphasis has been on securing higher wages for their members (that’s what unions do) and they have succeeded in getting the government to implement a minimum wage. </p>
<p>But these wins have come at a cost. For example, central bargaining has resulted in wage agreements with big firms that have imposed massive costs on small and medium sized businesses. </p>
<p>While no one wants a low wage economy, Ramaphosa would need to convince the unions that something has to give if problems like this are going to be addressed.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa’s easiest task will be to win the next election. But history will judge him on his ability to do something much bigger: rendering the South Africa state one that is not only capable, but genuinely developmental.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has done well so far but more challenges relating to reigniting the economy lie ahead.Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/938272018-03-26T09:06:09Z2018-03-26T09:06:09ZWhy Africa’s free trade area offers so much promise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211715/original/file-20180323-54878-d9bedj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">African leaders meet in Kigali to sign the continent's free trade agreement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Kagame/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African leaders have just signed a framework establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/20/africa-leaders-to-form-largest-free-trade-area-since-the-wto.html">largest free trade agreement</a> since the creation of the World Trade Organisation. </p>
<p>The free trade area aims to create a single market for goods and services in Africa. By 2030 the market size <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/capturing-africas-high-returns/">is expected</a> to include 1.7 billion people with over USD$ 6.7 trillion of cumulative consumer and business spending – that’s if all African countries have joined the free trade area by then. Ten countries, including Nigeria, have yet to sign up.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://au.int/en/ti/cfta/about">goal</a> is to create a </p>
<blockquote>
<p>single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments.</p>
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<p>The agreement has the potential to deliver a great deal for countries on the continent. The hope is that the trade deal will trigger a virtuous cycle of more intra African trade, which in turn will drive the <a href="https://unhabitat.org/books/structural-transformation-in-developing-countries-cross-regional-analysis/">structural transformation</a> of economies – the transition from low productivity and labour intensive activities to higher productivity and skills intensive industrial and service activities – which in turn will produce better paid jobs and make an impact on poverty. </p>
<p>But signing the agreement is only the beginning. For it to come into force, 22 countries must ratify it. Their national legislative bodies must approve and sanction the framework formally, showing full commitment to its implementation. Niger President Issoufou Mahamadou, who has been championing the process, aims to have the ratification process completed by January 2019. </p>
<h2>Cause and effect</h2>
<p>Some studies have shown that by creating a pan-African market, intra-Africa trade could increase by <a href="https://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/bridges-africa/news/launch-of-the-continental-free-trade-area-new-prospects-for-african">about 52%</a> by 2022. Better market access creates economies of scale. Combined with appropriate industrial policies, this contributes to a diversified industrial sector and growth in manufacturing value added. </p>
<p>Manufacturing represents only about <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.ZS">10% of total GDP in Africa</a> on average. This falls well below other developing regions. A successful continental free trade area could reduce this gap. And a bigger manufacturing sector will mean more well-paid jobs, especially for young people. This in turn will help poverty alleviation.</p>
<p>Industrial development, and with it, more jobs, is desperately needed in Africa. Industry represents <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.IND.EMPL.ZS">one-quarter to one-third of total job creation</a> in other regions of the world. And a young person in Africa is <a href="http://acetforafrica.org/highlights/unemployment-in-africa-no-jobs-for-50-of-graduates/">twice as likely to be unemployed when he or she becomes an adult</a>. This is a particularly stressful situation given that over <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/world-radio-day-2013/statistics-on-youth/">70% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is below age 30</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, <a href="http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/home">70% of Africa’s youth live on less than US $2 per day</a>.</p>
<p>The continental free trade area is expected to offer</p>
<blockquote>
<p>substantial opportunities for industrialisation, diversification, and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2018/02/02/foresight-africa-viewpoint-africas-bold-move-towards-integration-the-continental-free-trade-agreement/">high-skilled</a> employment in Africa. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The single continental market will offer the opportunity to accelerate the manufacture and intra-African trade of value-added products, moving from commodity based economies and exports to economic diversification and high-value exports. </p>
<p>But, to increase the impact of the trade deal, industrial policies must be put in place. These must focus on productivity, competition, diversification, and economic complexity. </p>
<p>In other words, governments must create enabling conditions to ensure that productivity is raised to international competitiveness standards. The goal must be to ensure that the products manufactured in African countries are competitively traded on the continent and abroad, and to diversify the range and sophistication of products and services.</p>
<h2>Drivers of manufacturing</h2>
<p>Data shows that the most economically diverse countries are also the most successful.</p>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://atlas.cid.harvard.edu/learn/glossary">diversification</a> is critical as “countries that are able to sustain a diverse range of productive know-how, including sophisticated, unique know-how, are able to produce a wide diversity of goods, including complex products that few other countries can make.</p>
<p>Diverse African economies such as South Africa and Egypt, are likely to be the drivers of the free trade area, and are likely to benefit from it the most. These countries will find a large continental market for their manufactured products. They will also use their know-how and dense industrial landscape to develop innovative products and respond to market demand.</p>
<p>But the agreement on its own won’t deliver results. Governments must put in place policies that drive industrial development, particularly manufacturing. Five key ones stand out:</p>
<p><strong>Human capital:</strong> A strong manufacturing sector needs capable, healthy, and skilled workers. Policymakers should adjust curriculum to ensure that skills are adapted to the market. And there must be a special focus on young people. Curriculum must focus on skills and building capacity for entrepreneurship and self-employment. This should involve business training at an early age and skills upgrading at an advanced one. This should go hand in hand with promoting science, technology, engineering, entrepreneurship and mathematics as well as vocational and on-the-job training. </p>
<p>Policymakers should also favour the migration of highly skilled workers across the continent.</p>
<p><strong>Cost:</strong> Policymakers must bring down the cost of doing business. The barriers include energy, access to roads and ports, security, financing, bureaucratic restrictions, corruption, dispute settlement and property rights. </p>
<p><strong>Supply network:</strong> Industries are more likely to evolve if competitive networks exist. Policymakers should ease trade restrictions and integrate regional trade networks. In particular, barriers for small and medium-size businesses should be lifted. </p>
<p><strong>Domestic demand:</strong> Policymakers should offer tax incentives to firms to unlock job creation, and to increase individual and household incomes. Higher purchasing power for households will increase the size of the domestic market. </p>
<p><strong>Resources:</strong> Manufacturing requires heavy investment. This should be driven by the private sector. Policymakers should facilitate access to finance, especially for small and medium enterprises. And to attract foreign direct investment, policymakers should address perceptions of poor risk perception. This invariably scares off potential investors or sets excessive returns expectations. </p>
<h2>Increased productivity</h2>
<p>The continental free trade area facilitates industrialisation by creating a continental market, unlocking manufacturing potential and bolstering an international negotiation bloc.</p>
<p>Finally, the continental free trade area will also provide African leaders with a greater negotiating power to eliminate barriers to exporting. This will help prevent agreements with other countries, and trading blocs, that are likely to hurt exports and industrial development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93827/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prof. Landry Signé does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Continental free trade area’s potential impact includes boosting intra-Africa trade, manufacturing exports, job creation and poverty alleviation.Prof. Landry Signé, Distinguished Fellow at Stanford University's Center for African Studies, David M. Rubenstein Fellow at the Global Economy and Development and Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/928562018-03-25T09:17:47Z2018-03-25T09:17:47ZA Marxist approach appropriate for the climate crisis and the 21st Century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211176/original/file-20180320-31596-157hdz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite the climate crisis, humans have continued emitting and intensively using fossil fuels.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change is the most serious challenge the human species faces. Despite numerous warnings – scientific studies, UN declarations, books, movies, progressive media reporting – global leadership has failed humanity. </p>
<p>But how do humans survive the climate crisis? </p>
<p>The climate crisis should be treated as an emergency, demanding transformative politics that gets to the root causes through democratic systemic reforms. These would include remaking how people produce, consume, finance and organise social life.</p>
<p>A civilisation constantly undermining the conditions that sustain life has to be transformed urgently.</p>
<p>Despite the science and global consensus on the climate crisis, humans have continued emitting and intensively using fossil fuels. As a result the world is recording the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/01/18/2017-was-among-the-planets-hottest-years-on-record-government-scientists-report/?utm_term=.6662195245e1">hottest years</a> on the planet. A heated planet, as a result of human action, unhinges all certainties and places everything in jeopardy. It challenges fixation with growth economics, “catch up” development and every conception of modern progress. </p>
<p>Most fundamentally, it prompts the question, has globalised capitalism lost its progressiveness? Is today’s fossil fuel driven, hi-tech, scientific, financialised and post-Fordist industrial world leading humanity down a path of destruction? </p>
<p>A new book I’ve <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/the-climate-crisis/">edited</a>, <em>The Climate Crisis- South African and Global Democratic Eco-Socialist Alternatives</em>, draws from the analysis, concepts and systemic alternatives emerging at the frontiers of climate justice politics. This includes alternatives championed by global social movements such as <a href="https://viacampesina.org/en/">La Via Campesina</a>, the largest peasant movement in the world, progressive Southern intellectuals and movements within Bolivia, Ecuador and Africa. </p>
<h2>Challenging Marxism to meet the challenge</h2>
<p>As in previous volumes in the <a href="http://copac.org.za/democratic-marxism-book-series/">Democratic Marxism series</a>, this one brings together contributions that are thinking with – and learning from – grassroots movements. Many of the contributors are engaged activist scholars, grassroots activists and movement leaders.</p>
<p>This volume also places Marxism in dialogue with contemporary anti-capitalism in a way that draws on its ideological and movement potentials. Marxism in the 20th century as a ruling ideology, mostly as Marxism-Leninism, has pursued policies that have been ruinous to the environment. These have included championing growth at all costs, monopoly one party state control and catch-up industrialisation with capitalist countries. </p>
<p>In this volume nature is placed at the centre of how Marxism understands capitalism, history and alternatives. It confronts the intersections of climate change, patriarchy and racism inherent to capitalism. Marxism is challenged to think and act democratically in the 21st century. It’s tested as an intellectual resource to serve as the basis for a new future.</p>
<p>This is different from socialisms in the 20th century. These where authoritarian (controlled by elites), anti-nature and undermined the power of workers, peasants and progressive social forces. This volume affirms the renewal of socialism in the 21st century in dialogue with Marxism, ecological thought and democratic alternatives emerging from below. </p>
<h2>A heating planet</h2>
<p>In 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen <a href="https://skepticalscience.com/Hansen-1988-prediction-advanced.htm">drew attention</a> to the heating of the earth’s temperature, otherwise known as climate change. Yet over the past two decades the US refused to adopt the <a href="http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php">Kyoto Protocol</a>. This didn’t go far enough but nevertheless locked in common but differentiated responsibilities for industrial countries to cut emissions. Instead, Washington has worked systematically to scuttle the Kyoto Protocol. </p>
<p>In 2006, Hansen <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/103/39/14288">cautioned</a> that the world has a decade to change the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions or face irreversible changes which would bring disastrous consequences. </p>
<p>Since this plea was made, another decade has been lost including through the ineffectual <a href="http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php">“Paris Climate Agreement”</a> <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2017/06/01/read-obama-statement-paris-climate-agreement/8jA3iHkFL2E1D55c74BnHJ/story.html">championed</a> by the US President Barack Obama but <a href="http://time.com/4802148/paris-agreement-barack-obama-donald-trump/">undermined</a> by incumbent Donald Trump. Today geologists and climate scientists are talking about a dangerous new world: the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/">Anthropocene</a>. It’s a world in which humans have changed planetary conditions including climate, breaking a 11 700 year pattern of relatively stable climate known as the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth/Holocene">Holocene</a>.</p>
<h2>The realities of climate driven world</h2>
<p>For many the climate crisis is a complex scientific problem. At one level it is. And is very different from daily or seasonal variability in weather. The science of climate change has <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/">confirmed</a>, with the measurement of greenhouse gases that human induced climate change is happening. </p>
<p>In 2015, the halfway mark towards catastrophic climate change was broken. This was confirmed by the <a href="https://www.wmo.int/pages/index_en.html">World Meteorological Organisation</a> which broadcast to the world that planetary temperatures have reached a 1 degree Celsius <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/digest/2016_hottest_year_on_record_wmo_12_degrees_c">increase</a> higher than the period prior to the industrial revolution.</p>
<p>The world is moving rapidly closer to a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/31/health/climate-change-two-degrees-studies/index.html">2°C increase</a> in planetary temperature. With this shift, extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves, drier conditions enabling fires and floods are becoming more commonplace. Sea levels are also rising, placing many low-lying communities, populous coastal cities and island states in jeopardy. </p>
<p>Climate change on this scale is not expected to unfold in a linear way. Instead, it potentially can happen abruptly or through feedback loops further accelerating runaway climate change. Examples of this include methane release from the Arctic ice sheet, carbon saturation in the oceans and the destruction of rain forests which all feed into the climate change crisis. As the world fails to address the climate crisis, it becomes more complex and more costly.</p>
<p>In response, the <em>Climate Crisis</em> highlights the importance of advancing a deep and just transition that decarbonises society and provides a new basis for organising society to endure climate shocks. </p>
<p>New systems have to be developed through democratic systemic reforms. These would include the rights of nature, degrowth, climate jobs, socially owned renewable energy, a substantive basic income grant, integrated public transport, food sovereignty, solidarity economy and commons approaches to land, water and the cyber sphere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92856/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vishwas Satgar receives funding from the National Institute of Humanities and Social Science and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. He is an activist in the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign, he chairs the board of the Cooperative and Policy Alternative Centre (COPAC) and is the editor of the Democratic Marxism book series.</span></em></p>The climate crisis is a complex scientific problem. New systems have to be developed through democratic systemic reforms.Vishwas Satgar, Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/938642018-03-23T13:03:37Z2018-03-23T13:03:37ZClaims about Cambridge Analytica’s role in Africa should be taken with a pinch of salt<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211682/original/file-20180323-54903-1vik3c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, left, and his successor Muhammadu Buhari. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Deji Yake</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Election manipulation is a hot story. In the last few days, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/22/cambridge-analytica-scandal-the-biggest-revelations-so-far">Cambridge Analytica</a>, which claims to use data to change behaviour including that of voters, has been accused of breaching Facebook rules in its efforts to collect personal data and use them to bring Donald Trump to power. </p>
<p>Cambridge Analytica is accused of interfering in elections on a very broad canvas. In Nigeria, it’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/21/cambridge-analyticas-ruthless-bid-to-sway-the-vote-in-nigeria">said to have used underhand tactics</a> to try and secure the re-election of then President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. </p>
<p>Allegations in Kenya have focused on claims that Cambridge Analytica helped president Uhuru Kenyatta to retain power in 2017 by designing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/03/20/how-cambridge-analytica-poisoned-kenyas-democracy/?utm_term=.6236050c6e12">divisive campaigns that demonised opposition</a> candidate Raila Odinga, bringing the country closer to civil conflict.</p>
<p>But caution is required, at least when it comes to the stories about interference in Nigeria and Kenya. The company’s impact has in fact been massively exaggerated as a result of claims made by Cambridge Analytica itself.</p>
<p>Speaking about the campaign of Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party, managing director <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-facebook-cambridge-analytica-kenya/cambridge-analytica-stage-managed-kenyan-presidents-campaigns-uk-tv-idUKKBN1GV302">Mark Turnbull</a> has been caught on camera claiming to have “staged the whole thing”. Unsurprisingly, given the willingness of employees of the firm to talk about the use of underhand strategies such as honey traps and fake news, opposition leaders are up in arms. National Super Alliance official Norman Magaya has called for a full investigation into Cambridge Analytica’s role, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43471707">accusing</a> it, and the ruling party, of trying to</p>
<blockquote>
<p>subvert the people’s will.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But while such investigations need to be conducted and questions raised by the opposition need to be answered, we should also ask a prior question: can Cambridge Analytica deliver on its claims? </p>
<p>The evidence from Africa is no. </p>
<p>This is not to say that Cambridge Analytica doesn’t present a threat to democracy, or that it should not be ashamed of itself or face investigation. But it is to say that its impact in Africa has been over-hyped because it serves a variety of interests to do so. </p>
<h2>Failures in Nigeria and Kenya</h2>
<p>In Nigeria, the company was brought in to save President Jonathan by wealthy supporters desperate for him to stay in power. It failed. In the 2015 elections, Jonathan became the first ever Nigerian leader to <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/04/economist-explains-2">lose at the ballot box</a>. In fact he didn’t only lose. He was soundly beaten by an opposition party competing with one hand tied behind its back in a political system that conferred massive advantages of incumbency.</p>
<p>There are also reasons to think that the company’s impact has been overstated in Kenya. It is true that Kenyatta was eventually declared the winner of the election – though the first contest was nullified by the <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2017-11-15/why-kenyas-supreme-court-cant-solve-countrys-electoral-crisis">Supreme Court for procedural irregularities</a> and the opposition did not take part in the re-run – but there is little evidence that Cambridge Analytica’s much vaunted ability to manipulate “big data” was the reason for this.</p>
<p>Take the question of targeted social media campaigns. It is true that material was circulated attacking Odinga as a <a href="http://www.pressreader.com/china/global-times/20170718/281706909732026">dangerous and irresponsible leader</a>. Cambridge Analytica may have advised the government to adopt this strategy – although we know that some of the worst videos were actually made by another company <a href="https://privacyinternational.org/press-release/955/press-release-texas-media-company-hired-trump-behind-kenyan-presidents-viral">Harris Media</a>. </p>
<p>But even if they did, there are two reasons to doubt that it was a new or particularly effective tactic.</p>
<p>First, these messages do not appear to have been targeted. Ahead of the elections, and as part of a comparative research project on elections in Africa, we set up multiple profiles on Facebook to track social media and political adverts, and found no evidence that different messages were directed at different voters. Instead, a consistent negative line was pushed on all profiles, no matter what their background. </p>
<p>Second, the <a href="http://www.dotsavvyafrica.com/the-5-biggest-social-media-platforms-in-kenya/">vast majority of Kenyans</a> are not on Facebook, and so there is no reason to think that messages circulated in this way would swing the wider electorate. Instead, surveys show that radio remains the <a href="http://www.itwebafrica.com/unified-communications/657-kenya/238860-kenyans-dont-trust-news-about-the-general-elections-that-are-shared-on-social-media-geopoll-596f3d39b1b25">major source of information</a>, and that Kenyans are highly sceptical of the reliability of social media.</p>
<p>In other words, the campaign led by Cambridge Analytica does not seem to have been that different to the ones that preceded it. For all the claims of a hi-tech innovative strategy, their real role appears to have been to advocate negative campaigning. But there is nothing new about this. </p>
<p>Back in 2007, when Raila Odinga’s opposition appeared to be on the brink of winning power, his rivals claimed that his victory would lead to the country’s collapse and circulated flyers with his <a href="http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/108/430/1.full.pdf">head superimposed on Idi Amin’s body</a> to drive the point home. This was well before Cambridge Analytica was even formed, and stands as proof that Kenyan leaders don’t need foreign consultants to tell them the value of ethnic scaremongering.</p>
<p>It is also important to keep in mind that you cannot simply use messaging to win votes in a system in which the ethnicity, patronage and credibility of candidates are <a href="https://theconversation.com/kenyas-elections-are-much-more-than-just-a-ruthless-game-of-thrones-81957">major drivers of voter behaviour</a>. To mobilise voters to the polls, leaders reinforce their support base by attending funerals and giving generously to the bereaved; attending church and contributing to building funds; turning up at parent-teacher meetings and paying school fees for poor children. </p>
<p>To show generosity at these events is to demonstrate that the candidate acknowledges the morality of voters’ claims and will not forget them once elected. If you don’t do this you will not win, no matter what your PR team is doing.</p>
<h2>Exaggerated claims</h2>
<p>The tendency to exaggerate Cambridge Analytica’s powers is no accident. Exaggerated claims are part and parcel of the company’s <a href="https://ca-political.com/?__hstc=163013475.98b7519b832f0a523b96ce41a80956c6.1521732839909.1521732839909.1521732839909.1&__hssc=163013475.1.1521732839910&__hsfp=700733249">marketing strategy</a>. For journalists, the more powerful the company, the bigger the story. For opposition parties, the more effective Cambridge Analytica is seen to be, the more it can be blamed for an electoral defeat.</p>
<p>There is also something more profound at work: the suspicion that Africa is the victim of European or American schemes is a powerful one. Many, in Africa and elsewhere, will see this as further evidence of that eternal truth. And we are all increasingly suspicious of the power of big data, uneasily aware that we may not have fully grasped the small print of our deal with the tech companies. </p>
<p>We may have good reason for that suspicion – but we should beware of flattering those firms by exaggerating their power and reach.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93864/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabrielle Lynch receives funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council under grant ES.L002345.1.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Willis receives funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council under grant ES.L002345.1 . </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nic Cheeseman receives funding from UK Economic and Social Research Council under grant ES.L002345.1.</span></em></p>Claims about Cambridge Analytica’s role in elections in Nigeria and Kenya have been overstated.Gabrielle Lynch, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of WarwickJustin Willis, Professor of History, Durham UniversityNic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/935642018-03-22T15:27:09Z2018-03-22T15:27:09ZWe’ve come up with a TB test that’s cheaper, quicker and more accurate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211260/original/file-20180320-80634-kize51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that kills more people due to a bacterial infection than any other disease in the world. </p>
<p>In 2016, the World Health Organisation <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/">reported</a> over 10 million new infections and 1.7 million deaths. In South Africa, TB remains one of the leading causes of death. </p>
<p>Countries with high TB burdens are tackling the problem in two ways: with the BCG vaccine – the most widely <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3749764/">administered vaccine</a> in human history – and a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3162758/">chemotherapeutic regimen</a>. Nevertheless, there are still multiple obstacles to getting the disease under control. </p>
<p>To make major strides, the world needs better interventions, vaccines and ways of diagnosing TB. In addition, new drugs are needed to tackle drug resistant strains and reduce treatment duration. </p>
<p>Extensive effort has been put into improving diagnostics. This makes sense for two reasons: diagnosing people earlier and faster means they get onto treatment earlier, and it reduces the risk of transmission. </p>
<p>There are three ways in which TB is diagnosed: through a sputum smear test; by growing bacteria in a lab through a process known as culturing; and by using molecular diagnostics to detect DNA components of the bacteria.</p>
<p>But each has limitations preventing them from being scaled up. We set about bridging this gap. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/10/430/eaam6310">our study</a> we’ve identified a way to speed up the age-old sputum smear test by using an invisible ink that lights up when it comes in contact with the TB bacteria. The ink significantly reduces the processing time to get a positive reading on a test. It’s also inexpensive which means our new method paves the way to introducing a test in communities where dozens of diagnostic tests need to be administered each day. </p>
<h2>Limitations to existing tests</h2>
<p>The current range of TB diagnostic tests have various limitations. </p>
<p>For example, the sputum smear is 100 years old. It’s outdated, clumsy and takes long to process. It’s also not very accurate because each sputum sample must contain more than 10 000 bacteria for an accurate test. This means it doesn’t work with patients who have a low number of bacteria. </p>
<p>The challenge is that people with an HIV and TB co-infection have significantly lower levels of bacteria because HIV remodels the way the disease occurs in the lung. </p>
<p>Diagnosing TB in this cohort of people is problematic, particularly in countries like South Africa with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-are-combining-forces-to-tackle-the-deadly-duo-of-tb-and-hiv-62378">highest HIV and TB co-infection</a> rate in the world.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211261/original/file-20180320-80637-rzmv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211261/original/file-20180320-80637-rzmv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211261/original/file-20180320-80637-rzmv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211261/original/file-20180320-80637-rzmv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211261/original/file-20180320-80637-rzmv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211261/original/file-20180320-80637-rzmv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211261/original/file-20180320-80637-rzmv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sputum smear after dye has been added and it has been washed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another limitation with smear methods are that they can’t distinguish between living and dead bacteria – making it hard to tell if a person is responding well to treatment. </p>
<p>One of the other methods, culturing, also has serious limitations. For one, it’s a lengthy process. Culturing TB in a laboratory can take up to 42 days because TB is a slow growing organism. This is problematic for treatment and care because it is easy to lose people from the health care system during this time. </p>
<p>Culturing is also difficult in situations where resources are stretched. This means it can’t be scaled up and implemented in a community setting. </p>
<p>Finally, there’s the molecular diagnostics test. One such test is the <a href="https://www.tbfacts.org/xpert-tb-test/">GeneXpert</a> which is being rolled out in South Africa. But its challenge is that it’s expensive and it can’t tell the difference between living and dead organisms. </p>
<h2>Invisible ink</h2>
<p>Our study focused on ways to improve the sputum smear test because it can be scaled up and implemented in communities. </p>
<p>To improve it, we decided to target a specific part of the TB bacteria – its cell wall. This protects the bacteria from the immune system in the body. </p>
<p>TB bacteria are rod shaped. Similarly to a capsule, the bacterial cell wall forms a protective coat that covers the bacteria. It is incredibly complex. It is thick and has many layers and is the reason why TB treatment takes a long time to take effect: drugs need to penetrate the wall. </p>
<p>But the defence wall in fact delivered the solution we’ve pioneered. It is built with mycolic acids, which is made of a chemical molecule (trehalose) unique to the TB bacteria family. As part of our study, the chemical molecule was fused with another chemical (a fluorophore) to create a stain that’s naturally fluorescent and changes colour (known as solvatochromic). The combination is called DMN-trehalose. </p>
<p>The DMN-trehalose is the brainchild of <a href="https://chemistry.stanford.edu/people/carolyn-bertozzi">Dr Carolyn Bertozzi</a> at Stanford University in the US whose lab conceived the idea and generated DMN-trehalose before bringing it to South Africa for tests in clinical samples. </p>
<p>The beauty of DMN-trehalose is that it colourless when it’s outside a TB bacteria. But as soon as it is in the presence of TB-infected sputum, TB bacteria immediately internalise it. Once the DMN-trehalose is inside the bacterial cell, it gets built into the cell wall and lights up the organism. </p>
<p>The advantage of our method is that it promises to reduce the processing time and complexity of the smear test. Another advantage is that it is very specific to TB because trehalose is only found in the TB bacteria family. </p>
<p>Lastly, the DMN-trehalose will only stain living bacteria, meaning it’s possible to tell whether treatment is working or not.</p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>Now that our study has shown proof of principle, it’s being tested in a pilot study at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. </p>
<p>The pilot will take one year and will look at both the sputum smears and oral swabs to assess how well DMN-trehalose works. It will assess sputum samples from people before treatment to establish if accurate diagnosis is possible, and after completing treatment to see if the regimes worked. </p>
<p>The pilot will help us compare it to the current staining method in sputum smear tests. If it produces similar results, the new test could become the preferred method because it requires less processing. </p>
<p>Effective, cheap and scalable diagnostics are urgently required for TB. For this, the new DMN-trehalose stain has great promise. It’s also an excellent research tool to help understand TB transmission and how TB bacteria remodels their cell walls during TB disease.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bavesh Kana receives/received funding from the South African National Research Foundation, South African Medical Research Council, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the US National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>The current range of TB diagnostic tests have various limitations like the sputum smear which is outdated, clumsy and takes long to process.Bavesh Kana, Head of the Centre of Excellence for Biomedical TB Research, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/936762018-03-22T15:27:03Z2018-03-22T15:27:03ZParadigm shift as African countries throw their weight behind ivory ban<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211299/original/file-20180321-165574-1pjsfoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Antique ivory -- defined as pre-1947 worked ivory -- is an exception and can be traded in the UK and EU.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/James Picht</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Calls from conservation groups for a strong line and a near total ban on the sale of ivory were strengthened last week when 32 African nations <a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-03-african-leaders-eu-ivory.html">stood as one</a> to demand an end to trade in ivory in Britain and the European Union. </p>
<p>Their intervention in the debate is welcome. </p>
<p>There has been considerable concern over the ivory trade, and the damage caused to Africa’s wild elephant population, on the part of countries who have historically been consumers of ivory goods. Elephant populations <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/wildlife-african-elephants-population-decrease-great-elephant-census">have declined</a> from 1.3 million in 1979 to 352,000 today. But elephant range states – including Botswana, Kenya and South Africa – have been slow to point the finger of blame at their old colonial masters. </p>
<p>In taking the lead African countries are showing two things: that they see the illegal wildlife trade as a global issue. And that they aren’t afraid to say so. </p>
<p>This new stance is exactly what wildlife campaigners have wanted to see. In putting African demands for change by the EU central to the ivory trade debate we are witnessing a shift in paradigm that could do more for elephant conservation than a host of international conferences. The message from Botswana’s President Ian Khama message <a href="http://www.ann7.com/african-leaders-call-on-eu-to-shut-ivory-trade/">was</a> loud and clear: shut your ivory markets and stop fuelling the poaching of our elephants.</p>
<h2>Desire for ivory</h2>
<p>Those of us who work in and study the nature and effect of the ivory trade appreciate that it is a complex problem and one that demands a multi-dimensional solution. Millions of dollars <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/23/world/africa/us-pours-millions-into-fighting-poachers-in-south-africa.html">have been</a> spent on education and community programmes in Africa in an attempt to solve the poaching problem. </p>
<p>But that does not address the issue that Khama and his fellow leaders pointed to last Friday –- the continuing desire for ivory in the West and Far East. The EU, for example, is the largest exporter of legal ivory. CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) trade data shows that the amount of commercial worked ivory exported legally between 2012 and 2016 <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/cites/pdf/background-ivory-trade-in-EU_en.pd">amounted</a> to an average of 7,500 items and 121 kg each year. </p>
<p>Khama was not shirking his continent’s responsibility in dealing with the trade in newly poached ivory. But he was highlighting the fact that the EU was fuelling the illegal trade through its continuing sale of legal ivory items. These are ivory artefacts exported to EU member states before elephants were internationally protected under the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Convention-on-International-Trade-in-Endangered-Species">CITES Convention</a> in 1975. </p>
<p><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/cites/pdf/guidance_ivory.pd">Current</a> EU rules mean that these older ivory items can be traded within the EU and re-exported from the EU, as long as sellers have the correct certification. It’s a similar case for the UK. It is legal to buy and sell ivory in the UK so long as they have the correct CITES certification. The most common <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/1372/contents/mad">exception</a> is with regards to the sale of antique ivory – defined as pre-1947 worked ivory. This means the elephant the ivory came from was killed before 1947 and that any carving or working to the item took place before this date as well.</p>
<p>183 states are signatories to CITES. This bans the commercial international trade in species listed on Appendix I, under which <a href="https://www.cites.org/eng/gallery/species/mammal/african_elephant.html">most</a> African elephants fall. Nevertheless, ivory can <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323445831_Conserving_elephants_depend_on_a_total_ban_of_ivory_trade_globally">still be</a> sold legally in several European and Asian countries. And, there is evidence that signatories are failing to comply with the regulations. One <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/10/japans-blind-eye-fuelling-illegal-ivory-trade-as-demand-rises-study-find">notable</a> example is Japan. Although Japan signed the 1989 convention banning the global trade in ivory, it has been alleged that Japanese sellers are registering tusks that are of undetermined origin. </p>
<h2>New legislation</h2>
<p>The EU and the UK now have the opportunity to end their historic links to the ivory trade. Though the law is yet to be signed, the British environment secretary <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43620012">has said</a> that the sale of ivory of any age, with limited exceptions, will be banned in an effort to reduce elephant poaching. This follows <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/banning-uk-sales-of-ivory">consultations</a> which ended in December 2017. </p>
<p>When Khama announced last Friday that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I can’t say more than say to the UK… just do the right thing, close the ivory trade</p>
</blockquote>
<p>his demands for action were well timed. Both the EU and UK are due shortly to announce the outcomes of their respective public consultations on the ivory trade both of which ended in December 2017 . By working together they have tackled a target that would otherwise be too big and too powerful to face alone. Africa has put the solution to the elephant crisis squarely on Europe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Cox does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The EU and UK are fuelling the illegal trade through their continuing sale of legal ivory items.Caroline Cox, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/931522018-03-22T15:26:46Z2018-03-22T15:26:46ZWhy an African perspective on humanity shows that survivor’s guilt makes sense<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210253/original/file-20180314-113462-104n2gz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sometimes individuals who survive a tragedy, such as a tsunami, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/10/national/survivors-speak-grief-guilt-life-tsunami/">report</a> feeling guilty that they lived while innocent people close to them perished. Similarly, I have had some black professionals in post-apartheid South Africa tell me they feel guilty for having left their townships or villages and “made it” while their former neighbours still live in poverty. </p>
<p>Is it appropriate to feel guilty in these circumstances? </p>
<p>I argue that while influential Western moral philosophies suggest that survivor’s guilt is irrational, the African philosophical tradition has the resources to make sense of why it can be a virtue. </p>
<p>Survivor’s guilt is – roughly speaking – experiencing the emotion of guilt despite not being guilty. More carefully, it is feeling bad about oneself for one’s associates having died (or undergone a serious harm), for not having died (been harmed) along with them, or for not having saved them, even though one did no wrong at all in contributing to their deaths (suffering). </p>
<p>Many survivors of large-scale tragedy for which they are not at all morally responsible report feeling guilty. Consider Jewish people who made it through the Holocaust, and soldiers who escaped war with their lives. It was also common among the Japanese who survived a tsunami, as <a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/life/Tsunami-of-guilt-30179002.html">recounted</a> by filmmaker Tatsuya Mori: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>On the day of the earthquake I was drinking beer with my friends in Roppongi. Thousands of people lost their lives, but I was drinking beer. I didn’t know what was happening at the time, but when I realised, I was ashamed. I felt guilty.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Should he have felt this way? </p>
<h2>Is survivor’s guilt unreasonable?</h2>
<p>The default view among contemporary Western moral philosophies is that survivor’s guilt is usually unreasonable.</p>
<p><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/utilitarianism-history/">Utilitarianism</a>, one of the two dominant ethical approaches in the West, maintains that everything one does should be oriented towards making the future better for society. One has moral reason to feel bad if and only if doing so would be useful. So it would be natural for a utilitarian to say,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It will do no good to feel guilty merely for having survived; you should try to let it go.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The other influential Western ethic is <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/#HumFor">Kantianism</a>, roughly the view that we need to treat people with respect by virtue of their capacity to make reasoned decisions. Where we misuse that capacity, say, by wrongfully putting others in harm’s way, then it would be appropriate to feel guilty or for others to censure us – that would be to treat ourselves and others as agents who are responsible for their actions. </p>
<p>However, when it comes to survivor’s guilt, most Kantians would say, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You did nothing wrong, and so have nothing to feel bad about. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As one contemporary Kantian <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=Wg3kOKtiO50C&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=Strictly+speaking,+survivor+guilt+is+not+rational+guilt,+for+surviving+the+Holocaust,+or+surviving+battle%E2%80%A6.is+not+typically+because+a+person+has+deliberately+let+another+take+his+place+in+harm&source=bl&ots=31er-56CEJ&sig=Z-Nt6Qr-cU9LdvLMmOp_UdSNokc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-geWcrOvZAhWhCcAKHeU3CD4Q6AEIKDAB#v=onepage&q=Strictly%20speaking%2C%20survivor%20guilt%20is%20not%20rational%20guilt%2C%20for%20surviving%20the%20Holocaust%2C%20or%20surviving%20battle%E2%80%A6.is%20not%20typically%20because%20a%20person%20has%20deliberately%20let%20another%20take%20his%20place%20in%20harm&f=false">puts it</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Strictly speaking, survivor guilt is not rational guilt, for surviving the Holocaust, or surviving battle… is not typically because a person has deliberately let another take his place in harm. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>An expression of <em>Ubuntu</em></h2>
<p>We get a different, revealing view of survivor’s guilt if we take up the perspective of <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/the-meaning-of-ubuntu-43307"><em>Ubuntu</em></a>, a southern African ethic grounded on values salient among people who live in the region. As is well known, an Ubuntu ethic is often summed up by:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A person is a person through other persons. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Central to this maxim is the idea that one ought to become a real person, or to live in a genuinely human way, by prizing communal relationships with others – that is, by caring for their quality of life and sharing a way of life with them. The South African public intellectual <a href="http://africacenturyconference.co.za/prof-muxe-nkondo-long-profile/">G M Nkondo</a> <a href="https://philarchive.org/archive/METEIAv1">remarks</a> that adherents to an <em>Ubuntu</em> philosophy are inclined to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>express commitment to the good of the community in which their identities were formed, and a need to experience their lives as bound up in that of their community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, one is more of a person, the more one sympathises with other people, helps them live better lives, identifies with others, and participates with them on an interdependent basis. By many readings of <em>Ubuntu</em>, although everyone has a dignity, those with whom we have already communed in these ways are owed extra attention and devotion, hence the additional maxims of “family first” and “charity begins at home”.</p>
<p>Given this interpretation of <em>Ubuntu</em>, one could be more of a person upon feeling survivor’s guilt insofar as it is a manifestation of loyalty or solidarity. Survivor’s guilt characteristically arises when people with whom one has identified and lived with have died (or suffered); it does not normally arise when strangers in a distant part of the globe perish (or suffer). Survivor’s guilt is arguably an instance of good character, an emotional expression of a person being bound up with, and committed to, others in her community. </p>
<p>As I have put it elsewhere in a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9781444367072">forthcoming contribution</a> to the <em>International Encyclopedia of Ethics</em> , survivor’s guilt is a way to experience negative feelings attuned to the bad condition of others with whom one shares a sense of self. It is also a way to judge that one has not exhibited the excellence of helping them, even if one violated no duty and hence did no wrong in respect of them. It is furthermore a way of acknowledging that one has not shared the same fate with them, while, in the <a href="https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/war-and-the-moral-logic-of-survivor-guilt/">words</a> of another scholar,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the anguish of guilt, its sheer pain, is a way of sharing some of the ill fate.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Survivor’s guilt could be disproportionately severe, but that is true of any negative emotion. Consider someone who were not disposed to feel survivor’s guilt at all. Might it be apt to say of such a person that he did not really feel a sense of togetherness with those who died or that he did not really care about them? If so, then <em>Ubuntu</em> helps explain not merely why survivor’s guilt is a recurrent feature of the human condition, but also why it should be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thaddeus Metz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Survivor’s guilt is arguably an instance of good character, an emotional expression.Thaddeus Metz, Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937952018-03-22T10:17:24Z2018-03-22T10:17:24ZZuma trial means that his toxic legacy will haunt South Africa for some time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211518/original/file-20180322-165580-536a1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The latest instalment in South Africa’s longest running political soap opera played out dramatically on 16 March when Shaun Abrahams, the head of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-south-africa-zuma-charges-20180316-story.html">announced</a> that 16 criminal charges against former president Jacob Zuma must stand and be tested in court. </p>
<p>The charges relate to 783 counts of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering. The charges were controversially dropped in 2009 but reinstated by the country’s High Court in 2016. The Supreme Court of Appeal went on to <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2017/10/13/sca-upholds-high-court-decision-on-zuma-charges">uphold this judgment in 2017</a>.</p>
<p>This is merely one instalment in a drama that may still have some years to run. It can be traced back to the sleaze and kickbacks surrounding the <a href="http://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/the-arms-deal-what-you-need-to-know-2/">arms procurement package</a> of the late 1990s. The allegations were that Zuma was a beneficiary of largesse from certain arms companies in exchange for exerting his influence on their behalf. </p>
<p>The Abrahams decision – made despite opposition fears that, as a Zuma appointee, he might flinch from the challenge - is of enormous significance. A former president is now likely to find himself in the dock at a criminal trial, an unprecedented event in South African history.</p>
<h2>A different political atmosphere</h2>
<p>Looking beyond the groundbreaking historical nature of the decision and its implications for Zuma personally, it seems unlikely that Abrahams’ decision will generate the same passions as the issue did in the 2007-2009 period. At that point Zuma’s standing in the ANC alliance was at an all time high and attempts to prosecute him for corruption were viewed as part of a wider ‘dirty tricks’ campaign to sabotage his rise to the presidencies of <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2008-07-04-anc-boss-accuses-judges-of-conspiracy-against-zuma">both party and state</a>. This included the Thabo Mbeki camp inside the ANC and others outside the party. </p>
<p>His <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-decade-on-a-new-book-on-zumas-rape-trial-has-finally-hit-home-85262">2006 rape trial</a> had been viewed in similar terms by his <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2008-06-17-kill-for-zuma-i-can-explain-says-malema">staunchest backers</a> such as then ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who subsequently, and rather shamelessly, would reinvent himself as Zuma’s <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/111769/eff-slams-zuma-and-gupta-criminal-enterprises/">chief critic</a>. </p>
<p>Pro-Zuma sentiment was particularly strong on the left of the ANC-led alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party uncritically and unconditionally buying <a href="https://theconversation.com/those-who-brought-zuma-to-power-shouldnt-be-forgotten-or-forgiven-82858">into the mythology around Zuma</a> . They viewed his presidency as an opportunity to engineer a leftwards shift in South Africa’s general political direction after the supposed ‘neo-liberalism’ of the Mbeki years. </p>
<p>Now, in 2018, the left is older and wiser. In the aftermath of a scandal ridden presidency disfigured by <a href="https://pari.org.za/betrayal-promise-report/">endemic corruption</a> and allegations of state capture by private interests close to Zuma, the trade union federation and the Communist Party are more likely to support his prosecution than contest it.</p>
<p>Equally, the broader politics of the issue are now less highly charged. In 2009, Zuma was the president-in-waiting. There was limited enthusiasm, even among his many critics in the movement, to see a South African president inaugurated who faced the realistic prospect of a criminal trial in the foreseeable future. It was felt this would provide a fatal distraction from the responsibilities of government. </p>
<p>As it turned out, he was fatally distracted from those responsibilities anyway by a succession of new scandals which arrived with alarming frequency to paralyse his presidency. These included <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/Public%20Protector's%20Report%20on%20Nkandla_a.pdf">Nkandla</a> (2013/2014), <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-removal-of-south-africas-finance-minister-is-bad-news-for-the-country-52170">Nenegate</a> (December 2015), the sacking of Finance Minister, <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2017/03/31/zuma-says-reshuffled-cabinet-to-improve-efficiency-and-effectiveness">Pravin Gordhan </a>(March 2017), and the various <a href="http://www.gupta-leaks.com/">state capture reports</a> of 2016/17. </p>
<p>While prosecutors technically make their decisions on narrow legal grounds, one should not assume they are entirely insulated from broader political and societal pressures in their decision making. Now, however, Zuma is merely a former president and an ANC member. Consequently, the protective shield previously extended by the governing party will not be there. And, given the other scandals mentioned above and with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anc-has-a-new-leader-but-south-africa-remains-on-a-political-precipice-89248">new leader in place</a>, he may only be able to draw on very modest support from within the ANC’s ranks.</p>
<h2>The double-edged sword</h2>
<p>Zuma’s proposed prosecution is a welcome reaffirmation of the principle that all are equal before the law. But a trial carries with it very real dangers for the ANC. </p>
<p>First, it will serve to remind a wider South African audience that Zuma did not emerge in a vacuum. He is a product of the ANC. The party elected him twice as its president and, before recalling him in February 2017, <a href="https://theconversation.com/survey-shows-zuma-and-ancs-mutual-dance-to-the-bottom-92126">rallied round</a> him during the Nkandla saga and in numerous parliamentary <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/breaking-zuma-survives-vote-of-no-confidence-20170808">votes of no-confidence</a>. Its own National Executive Committee also <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-11-29-zuma-avoids-nec-recall-as-anc-turns-to-unity/#.WrLNTkx2vmI">rejected demands</a> for his recall on several occasions. It will be difficult if not impossible for the ANC to avoid some collateral damage as it was unquestionably the chief facilitator and enabler of that discredited era.</p>
<p>Second, there is always the risk that a trial will see the movement’s dirty laundry being aired in public by Zuma. This will be particularly true if he believes his fate is sealed, taking the opportunity for a wider settling of scores with others in the ANC. The trial could then become an endurance test for the ANC and a propaganda windfall for its opponents reminding South Africans in graphic detail of the looting and embezzlement over which the movement has presided. </p>
<p>Ramaphosa will hope that Zuma’s lawyers revisit their earlier so-called ‘Stalingrad strategy’ of delays and prevarication so that when it finally commences it does so after – and not before – the <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/newsmaker-2019-elections-results-will-be-credible-20171015-2">2019 election</a>. On past evidence there are likely <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-03-18-anc-facing-charges-can-zuma-still-split-the-party/">to be numerous attempts</a> by his lawyers to actually prevent the case from ever coming to court.</p>
<p>For the trial to take place in the run up to, and during that election campaign, would be extremely unwelcome for the new leadership. It will blunt the Ramaphosa message that he is ‘purifying’ the movement, restoring its traditional values, and seeking closure on a discredited era. </p>
<p>Moreover, even in the aftermath of an election, the issue will return to the top of Ramaphosa’s agenda if Zuma is eventually found guilty. The question of granting or not granting him a pardon will then arise. This will test the credentials of a leader supposedly making a definitive break with a sordid past. </p>
<p>It is also possible <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/2018/01/23/zondo-inquiry-will-investigate-everybody-and-anybody_a_23341033/">that further charges </a> could be brought against Zuma once the whole state capture phenomenon is laid bare by an <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-zondo-to-reveal-team-to-tackle-claims-of-state-capture-20180307">official commission of inquiry</a> headed by <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/2018/01/10/raymond-zondo-who-is-the-man-behind-sas-biggest-probe_a_23329381/">Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo</a>. The state capture saga makes the existing charges against Zuma look insubstantial by comparison. </p>
<p>Zuma’s presidency may be over, but his toxic legacy seems likely to haunt the ANC – and through it South Africa - for some considerable time yet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93795/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Hamill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Former South African president Jacob Zuma’s proposed prosecution is a welcome reaffirmation of the principle that all are equal before the law.James Hamill, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932892018-03-21T14:39:24Z2018-03-21T14:39:24ZWhy African farmers should balance pesticides with other control methods<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211000/original/file-20180319-31617-1bqatyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Insects are constantly adapting to methods used to control them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Alf Ribeiro</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Insect pests <a href="https://www.cabi.org/projects/food-security/tackling-pests-diseases/">cause</a> almost half of the crop losses in Africa. If the continent is to feed its growing population, farmers must find ways to control them. Pests account for high losses in other developing regions too.</p>
<p>For smallholder farmers in particular, pest management needs to be affordable, safe and sustainable. It should avoid the drawbacks of synthetic pesticides as far as possible. Research is now showing that integrated approaches can achieve these goals.</p>
<p>The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, for example, recently <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/integrated-management-fall-armyworm-maize-guide-farmer-field-schools-africa">launched</a> a comprehensive guide that will help millions of smallholder farmers across Africa to manage the fall armyworm. This is a new insect pest in over 30 African countries and a serious threat to maize crops, a staple food. </p>
<p>The guide suggests using biological control and local remedies rather than insecticides that can work in an emergency but may be ineffective and harmful in the longer run.</p>
<p>This is a good example of how farmers can be encouraged to balance the use of insecticides with other forms of pest control. </p>
<p>African smallholder farmers produce 80% of the continent’s food. It’s imperative that they have the tools and knowledge to sustainably control insect pests, avoiding the almost 50% losses that arise due to them. But it’s also important that as the pressure increases on them to produce more, they must also learn to think of their health and our environment. Governments should make farmers aware of the risks that come with insecticide use only. </p>
<h2>Pesticides</h2>
<p>When insect pests or diseases threaten their crops, many smallholder farmers, the <a href="http://www.asfg.org.uk/framework-report/introduction-1">majority</a> of whom are poor, turn to <a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pesticides/index.cfm">pesticides</a> – man-made chemicals that can prevent infestations or kill the pests.</p>
<p>Pesticide use is growing in many countries including <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19315260.2013.800625?scroll=top&needAccess=true&">Cameroon</a>, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article-abstract/60/5/551/2196140?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Ethiopia</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ps.1178/abstract">Ghana</a>, <a href="http://www.worldagroforestry.org/publication/potential-environmental-impacts-pesticide-use-vegetable-sub-sector-kenya">Kenya</a> and <a href="http://irepos.unijos.edu.ng/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1870/1/91393-170650-1-SM.pdf">Nigeria</a>. In 2017, Nigeria alone spent over <a href="http://securitymonitorng.com/2017/10/07/nigerian-peasant-farmers-spend-400-million-annually-on-purchase-of-pesticide/">USD$400 million</a> on these chemicals. </p>
<p>Pesticides are popular because they are effective. They <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6147/730/tab-pdf">directly</a> reduce the incidence of insect pests which severely limits crop yields. This means higher yields and surpluses, and therefore higher incomes for farmers, less malnutrition and improved food security. Also, many of the older, more dangerous, pesticides are cheap. The benefits <a href="https://croplife.org/case-study/importance-of-pesticides-for-growing-wheat-in-sub-saharan-africa/">are there</a>, but they <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-012-0105-x">are</a> short-term. </p>
<p>In the long run, their use isn’t sustainable because insects quickly become resistant and because their use can cause significant damage to the natural environment as well as the health of farmers and consumers. There’s also a lack of regulation on their use. The chemicals are <a href="http://www.ripe.illinois.edu/news/plagued-by-pest-african-farmers-may-soon-have-access-to-insect-resistant-gm">often</a> sold in used bottles, with little or no instruction on how to use them. And many farmers don’t <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10668-015-9728-9#CR43">follow</a> appropriate safety measures.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/agec.12384/full">recent study</a> explored the relationship between pesticide use on farmers’ fields, the value of crop output, and a suite of human indicators in four African countries — Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. It showed consistent evidence that pesticide use is correlated with significantly greater agricultural output value. But it is also costly in terms of human health and the loss of labour supply due to time lost to illness. </p>
<p>In 2017, <a href="http://www.pan-uk.org/site/wp-content/uploads/United-Nations-Report-of-the-Special-Rapporteur-on-the-right-to-food.pdf">a UN report</a> showed that <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/200000-die-year-pesticide-poisoning-170308140641105.html">about</a> 200,000 people, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/03/552872-un-human-rights-experts-call-global-treaty-regulate-dangerous-pesticides">mostly</a> from developing countries, die every year from pesticide poisoning.</p>
<p>Agriculture needs a way to manage harmful insects without destroying the ecological balance of the environment.</p>
<h2>Integrated pest management</h2>
<p><a href="http://www2.ipm.ucanr.edu/WhatIsIPM/">Integrated pest management</a> is an <a href="https://www.epa.gov/managing-pests-schools/introduction-integrated-pest-management">approach</a> that doesn’t rule out the use of pesticides, but uses them as little as possible and only for strong reasons. It promotes the use of safer alternatives, like biocontrol, which uses natural enemies to control pests, and cultural control practices which modify the growing environment to reduce unwanted pests. </p>
<p>These approaches include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The use of resistant cultivars. These are plant varieties that have been bred to resist insect damage</p></li>
<li><p>Crop rotation which changes the crops planted every season, or year, to break the life-cycle of insect pests and discourage pests from staying on the farm</p></li>
<li><p>Habitat manipulation techniques which involve planting a variety of crops in and around the farm in an effort to increase the number of natural insect enemies on the farm land</p></li>
<li><p>The use of pheromone traps. These are small glue traps that contain insect pest attractants. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Several research centres in Africa champion this approach. The <a href="http://www.icipe.org/about/mission_and_vision">International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology</a> is one of them. It is the only institution that specialises in insect research. Since its inception in 1970, it has rolled out several integrated pest management programs for major insect pests. For example, between 1993-2008, it<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880916302900">championed</a> the biological control programme to control the stem borer pests; Busseola fusca, Chilo partellus and Sesamia calamistis – major pests for maize in Africa. As a result, it <a href="http://www.icipe.org/impacts/demonstration-of-research-impacts-on-communities">contributed</a> an aggregate monetary surplus of USD$ 1.4 billion to the economies of the three countries where it was implemented – Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia.</p>
<p>This is one of many success stories. First used in 1959, integrated pest management has controlled many of Africa’s top insect pests, including aphids, Africa’s main cassava insect pest <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17222696">Bemicia tabaci</a>), the <a href="https://avrdc.org/on-farm/crop-production/integrated-pest-management-ipm/">legume pod borer</a> a serious pest for cowpeas, and <a href="http://www.ijird.com/index.php/ijird/article/view/80066">lepidopteran stem borers</a> which harm cereal crops including maize, rice and sorghum. </p>
<p>Most importantly, it has been one of the most effective approaches in combating the <a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-most-notorious-insects-the-bugs-that-hit-agriculture-the-hardest-83107">fall armyworm</a>. Early this year development and research agencies released <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/FallArmyworm_IPM_Guide_forAfrica.pdf">a handbook</a> on the approach which will serve as a resource to many African countries.</p>
<p>Despite its success, insect pests are still a major problem. This is <a href="https://www.ipm.iastate.edu/files/12%20Pesticide%20resistance.pdf">because</a> they are constantly adapting to methods used to control them and because there <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/27/7575">are new</a>, invasive insect species and strains emerging everyday.</p>
<h2>Moving forward</h2>
<p>Integrated approaches to pest management appear to hold more promise than single approaches. </p>
<p>The challenge is to ensure that Africa’s farmers adopt practices that are sustainable and friendly to the environment and human health. </p>
<p>Farmers will need incentives and tools to change their practices. For example, access to insect resistant varieties of crops.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93289/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Esther Ndumi Ngumbi is a 2015 Food Security Fellow with the New Voices, Aspen Institute</span></em></p>Farmers needs a way to manage harmful insects without destroying the ecological balance.Esther Ndumi Ngumbi, Distinguished Post Doctoral Researcher, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/924432018-03-19T16:04:55Z2018-03-19T16:04:55ZHow Nairobi can fix its serious waste problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210250/original/file-20180314-113452-16unou5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nairobi's current waste disposal system is fraught with major problems</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Dai Kurokawa </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Uncollected <a href="http://nairobiassembly.go.ke/acts/Solid-waste.pdf">solid waste</a> is one of Nairobi’s <a href="http://www.cityfarmer.org/NairobiCompost.html">most</a> visible environmental problems. Many parts of the city, especially the low and middle-income areas, don’t even have waste collection systems in place. In high income areas, private waste collection companies are booming. Residents pay handsomely without really knowing where the waste will end up. </p>
<p>The Nairobi county government has <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/dn2/Nairobi-City-sinking-in-trash/957860-3188156-12j42w6/index.html">acknowledged</a> that <a href="http://www.centreforurbaninnovations.com/sites/default/files/Integrated%20Solid%20Waste%20Management%20Plan%20for%20Nairobi%20City.pdf">with</a> 2,475 tons of waste being produced each day, it can’t manage. Addis Ababa Ethiopia has a <a href="http://populationof2017.com/population-of-addis-ababa-2017.html">similar</a> size population but only <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2017/11/25/ethiopia-marching-towards-africa-s-first-waste-to-energy-plant-unep//">generates</a> 1,680 tons per day. </p>
<p>Nairobi’s current waste disposal system is fraught with major problems. These range from the city’s failure to prioritise solid waste management to inadequate infrastructure and the fact that multiple actors are involved whose activities aren’t controlled. There are <a href="http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/76278/Ondiek_Business%20opportunities%20and%20challenges%20for%20small%20and%20medium%20enterprises%20.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">over</a> 150 private sector waste operators independently involved in various aspects of waste management. To top it all there’s no enforcement of laws and regulations. </p>
<p>Nairobi’s waste disposal problems go back a long way and there have been previous efforts to sort them out. For example in the early 1990s, private and civil society actors got involved, signing contractual arrangements with waste generators. They often did this without informing or partnering with the city authorities. </p>
<p>More recently other strategies were put in place, some of which left parts of the city clean. They worked for a period, but unfortunately they weren’t sustainable because no institutional changes were made. </p>
<p>But there’s hope on the horizon with a new Nairobi Governor – Mike Sonko Mbuvi. He should learn from the mistakes of the past and put a new regime in place that addresses the structural problems that have plagued the city. This would include an improved improved collection and transportation plan that incorporates the private sector. </p>
<h2>Learning from the past</h2>
<p>In 2005 John Gakuo took over the management of city affairs as the Town Clerk. During his tenure (2005-2009) he made a deliberate effort to introduce new approaches. </p>
<p>When he took over the city only had 13 refuse trucks. They were able to collect a <a href="http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/76278/Ondiek_Business%20opportunities%20and%20challenges%20for%20small%20and%20medium%20enterprises%20.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">paltry</a> 20% of the waste produced by the city. To overcome this, the authorities contracted private waste collection firms to collect, transport and dispose waste at Dandora dump site which is the biggest and the only designated site. This quickly <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/440806-2090792-1fr5wgz/index.html">boosted</a> the total waste collected with levels oscillating between 45%-60%. </p>
<p>Other changes included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The development of a proper waste collection and transportation schedule with market operators. This meant waste from open-air markets was brought to identified collection points on specific days. </p></li>
<li><p>A <a href="http://www.ecopost.co.ke/assets/pdf/nairobi_solid_waste.pdf">weighbridge</a> to measure amounts of waste disposed at Dandora was introduced. An important way to know disposal levels vis-a-vis collection and generation. </p></li>
<li><p>Enforcement officers were deployed to prevent dumping in parts of the city that were notorious for waste accumulation. </p></li>
<li><p>Over 2,000 arrests <a href="http://bankelele.co.ke/2007/10/john-gakuo-restoring-nairobis-glory.html">were made</a>, making residents aware that indiscriminate dumping was illegal and punishable under the city authority laws. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>All these efforts paid off – for parts of the city. For example, the heart of the city, the Central Business District, was cleaned up and waste was brought under control.</p>
<p>But crucial elements that would have ensured that the changes were sustainable were left out. For example, no new physical infrastructure, like the construction of waste transfer centres and proper landfills, were built, nor was new equipment bought. </p>
<p>After Gakuo’s regime, the next one worth a mention is Evans Kidero’s regime (2013 - 2017). It can be credited for trying to fast-track the implementation of the <a href="http://www.centreforurbaninnovations.com/sites/default/files/Integrated%20Solid%20Waste%20Management%20Plan%20for%20Nairobi%20City.pdf">Solid Waste Management Master Plan</a> which assessed the waste management problem of Nairobi and <a href="https://www.jica.go.jp/kenya/english/office/topics/150317.html">developed projects</a> that could be implemented to ensure a sustainable system was in place.</p>
<p>This ensured that while the private sector needed to help with waste collection and transportation, the government was key to institutionalising waste management services. </p>
<p>Thirty waste collection trucks were bought and serious investment was made into heavy equipment. And in an effort to streamline waste collection a franchise system of waste collection was rolled out. This involved dividing the city into nine zones to make it easier to manage waste. </p>
<p>The franchise arrangement gave private operators a monopoly over both waste and fee collections, but relied heavily on the public body for enforcement of the system. </p>
<p>The franchising system failed due to a lack of enforcement by the city. In addition, in-fighting broke out between the private waste collection firms that had individual contracts with waste generators and the appointed contractor. </p>
<p>But other changes introduced during this period were more successful and had longer lasting effect. For example new laws were introduced designed to create order in the sector. These included the <a href="http://nairobiassembly.go.ke/acts/Solid-waste.pdf">solid waste management act</a> in 2015. This classified waste and also created a collection scheme based on the sub-county system. It also put penalties in place.</p>
<p>In addition, in 2016, 17 environment officers <a href="http://www.nairobi.go.ke/home/news/kidero-attends-to-nairobi-residents-and-business-owners-grievances/">were appointed</a> and posted to the sub-counties to plan and supervise waste management operations alongside other environmental issues. </p>
<p>These changes planted the seeds of an efficient and working waste management system. But the regime fell down when it come to enforcement. This meant that the gains that had been made were soon lost.</p>
<h2>What needs to be done</h2>
<p>Expectations are high for the new regime that has taken over. It should look to fast-track the following programmes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Implement an improved collection and transportation plan that incorporates private sector and civil society groups;</p></li>
<li><p>Establish a disposal facility to reduce secondary pollution from the city’s dumps;</p></li>
<li><p>Decommission the Dandora dump site;</p></li>
<li><p>Implement the re-use, reduction, and recycling of waste;</p></li>
<li><p>Establish intermediate treatment facilities to reduce waste and its hazards;</p></li>
<li><p>Create an autonomous public corporation;</p></li>
<li><p>Put in place legal and institutional reforms to create accountability;</p></li>
<li><p>Implement a financial management plan, and</p></li>
<li><p>Implement private sector involvement.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Nairobi can fix it’s waste disposal problems. All it needs is focused attention, good governance and the implementation of systems that ensure changes outlive just one administration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leah Oyake-Ombis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nairobi’s new governor should learn from the mistakes of the pastLeah Oyake-Ombis, Part-time lecturer and Director of the Africa Livelihood Innovations for Sustainable Environment Consulting Group, University of NairobiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/933052018-03-19T16:01:14Z2018-03-19T16:01:14ZHow kids in a low-income country use laptops: lessons from Madagascar<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210317/original/file-20180314-113462-1kgcrn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Malagasy girl works on her laptop.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">http://www.nosykombaproject.org/gallerie-photos/</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every child, no matter what country they’re from or their social background, should have the chance to use and learn about technology. That’s the thinking behind a number of projects led by international organisations like <a href="https://en.unesco.org/themes/ict-education">UNESCO</a> and UNICEF. They hope to bolster education and economic growth by making digital technologies available in the developing world. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://one.laptop.org/">One Laptop Per Child project</a> was a pioneer in this field. This educational project, launched by the MIT in 2005, produces <a href="http://laptop.org/en/laptop/">laptop computers</a> suitable for children aged between 6 and 12. These are loaded with an operating system that features free educational software called <a href="https://sugarlabs.org/">Sugar</a>. The programme has been rolled out at schools in more than 30 countries. </p>
<p>The project aims to equip all primary school children and all teachers with computers in a way that involves communities and that ensures everyone feels a sense of responsibility for the equipment. For example, kids aged six to 12 own their computers and can take them home to use.</p>
<p>Research <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0034654316628645">shows</a> that using technology in school makes children more engaged with learning. We wanted to know how children in low-income countries use laptops in their everyday lives; in school and after class. To find out, we embarked <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/cv4y7UqYqzxcWtcNAuEe/full">on a study</a> in a village in Madagascar four years after the project was launched there. </p>
<p>Our results show that the use of computers in low-income countries supports formal and informal learning activities at home. It provides easy access to information, educational games and tools for self-expression. </p>
<h2>Use at school</h2>
<p><a href="http://datatopics.worldbank.org/education/country/madagascar">Madagascar</a>, an island nation off Africa’s southeast coast, is extremely poor: 75% of the population (25 million) live below the poverty line, and the country scores low on the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi">human development index</a>, performing poorly in areas like education and living standards.</p>
<p>The study was conducted in a village located on the island of Nosy Komba, in the northeast of the country. Laptops are seen among residents there as high status objects because they cost a lot of money. None of the parents we interviewed could afford to buy one. They also have a high symbolic value: parents believe that if their children can master laptop use they will become more intelligent and develop professional skills.</p>
<p>A programme was rolled out in the village by <a href="https://olpc-france.org/">One Laptop Per Child France</a> and another French organisation, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GducoeurESGMS">Gducœur</a>. They supplied laptops and provided technical, logistical, administrative, financial and educational support. The laptops were given to 160 children aged between 5 and 15 enrolled in the village’s primary school.</p>
<p>Our analysis was both quantitative and a qualitative. We examined logs that showed which applications the children had used on their laptops during the previous 12 months; we analysed what they’d produced – for instance, recorded files. And we interviewed the children and their parents.</p>
<p>The results showed that the laptops were used very differently at school and in the children’s homes. At school, computers were generally used to learn about word processing, to play educational games and to support creative activities (drawing, digital story telling). Computers were also used as a virtual learning environment that offered a range of resources unavailable in the classroom like calculators, ebooks, maps, a watch, measuring tools and so on.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210319/original/file-20180314-113482-or0fvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210319/original/file-20180314-113482-or0fvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210319/original/file-20180314-113482-or0fvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210319/original/file-20180314-113482-or0fvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210319/original/file-20180314-113482-or0fvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210319/original/file-20180314-113482-or0fvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210319/original/file-20180314-113482-or0fvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210319/original/file-20180314-113482-or0fvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A teacher at work with his class in the Nosy Komba primary school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">http://www.nosykombaproject.org/gallerie-photos/</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At home the children, like their peers in developed countries, largely used computers to take photos or make videos, listen to music, play games, share content and do homework. The younger children tended to use fewer reading and writing applications. Those in the equivalent of fourth and fifth grade used more digital books; they also shared images and videos more frequently with their friends.</p>
<h2>Similarities and differences</h2>
<p>Our findings suggest that developing countries like Madagascar have something in common with western nations when it comes to laptop use, such as how the children used the computers at home. </p>
<p>But there was one marked difference: computer use in Madagascar tended to be a collective rather than an individual practice. Children and their families would gather around one laptop to play educational games, take photos or make videos. Computers were being used to strengthen existing social relations among siblings, parents and peers. </p>
<p>All of this is important and valuable. Laptops have introduced the children of Nosy Komba to previously inaccessible tools. But we found that original projects were limited. While applications used were designed to foster creativity, children need support to develop creativity skills. </p>
<p>Educators have a crucial role to play here. They can help to nurture children’s creativity: the can help them to connect their lived experience and to express their imagination to produce original content. This will unlock new forms of expression and different kinds of literacy, including visual.</p>
<p><em>This article was co-authored with Pierre Varly, an international consultant in quantitative methods in education. He runs <a href="https://varlyproject.wordpress.com/">a blog</a> on education in developing countries.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93305/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work was supported by grants from the Paris Region (program PICRI, région Ile de France).
We thank the associations we work, it works and Gducoeur, that hosted us in the village and gave us access to the project. The quantitative data were collected with the support of OLPC France members and analyzed by VarlyProject in collaboration with Abdallah Abarda (statistician). </span></em></p>Laptops have introduced the children of Nosy Komba in Madagascar to previously inaccessible tools.Sandra Nogry, Professeure associée en Psychologie de l'éducation, CY Cergy Paris UniversitéLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/933082018-03-18T11:06:59Z2018-03-18T11:06:59ZHow an Ethiopia-backed port is changing power dynamics in the Horn of Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210647/original/file-20180315-104639-1r71q2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shipping vessels seen off the Djibouti port in the Gulf of Aden.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Mazen Mahdi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, Ethiopia became landlocked and therefore dependent on its neighbours – especially Djibouti – for access to international markets. This dependency has hampered Ethiopia’s aspiration to emerge as the uncontested regional power in the Horn of Africa.</p>
<p>Recently, however, the ground has been shifting. As we point out in a <a href="http://risingpowersproject.com/quarterly/ethiopia-berbera-port-shifting-balance-power-horn-africa/">recent article</a>, Ethiopia has attempted to take advantage of the recent involvement of various Arab Gulf States in the Horn of Africa’s coastal zone to reduce its dependency on Djibouti’s port. The <a href="http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Ethiopia-to-trade-using-regional-ports/2558-2682324-11idtdp/index.html">port currently accounts</a> for 95% of Ethiopia’s imports and exports. It has done so by actively trying to interest partners in the refurbishment and development of other ports in the region: Port Sudan in Sudan, Berbera in the Somaliland region of Somalia, and Mombasa in Kenya. </p>
<p>But it is Berbera, in particular, that will prove the most radical in terms of challenging regional power dynamics as well as international law. This is because a port deal involving Somaliland will challenge Djibouti’s virtual monopoly over maritime trade. In addition, it may entrench the de-facto Balkanization of Somalia and increase the prospects of Ethiopia becoming the regional hegemon. </p>
<h2>Ethiopia’s regional policy</h2>
<p>Ethiopia’s interest in Berbera certainly makes sense from a strategic perspective. It is closest to Ethiopia and will connect the eastern, primarily Somali region of Ethiopia to Addis Ababa. It will also provide a much needed outlet for trade, particularly the export of livestock and agriculture. </p>
<p>The development and expansion of the port at Berbera supports two primary pillars of Ethiopia’s regional policy. The first is maintaining <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajia/article/view/99572">Eritrea’s isolation</a>. The aim would be to weaken it to the point that it implodes and is formally reunited to Ethiopia. Or it becomes a <a href="https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=539285">pliant, client state</a>. </p>
<p>The second pillar rests on maintaining the <a href="https://tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10246029.2006.9627402">status quo in post-civil war Somalia</a>. Simply put, a weak and fractured Somalia enables Ethiopia to focus on quelling persistent internal security difficulties. It also keeps up pressure on Eritrea.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210784/original/file-20180316-104642-llphfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210784/original/file-20180316-104642-llphfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210784/original/file-20180316-104642-llphfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210784/original/file-20180316-104642-llphfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210784/original/file-20180316-104642-llphfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210784/original/file-20180316-104642-llphfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210784/original/file-20180316-104642-llphfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Horn of Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ethiopia’s ambitions for Berbera have been hampered by two problems. Firstly the Republic of Somaliland – a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13698249.2017.1343411">de-facto independent state</a> since 1991 – still isn’t recognised internationally. This makes engagement a political and legal headache. Secondly, Ethiopia, doesn’t have the critical resources needed to invest and build a port.</p>
<p>Ethiopia had been trying to get Abu Dhabi and Dubai interested in the Berbera Port for years. It’s latest push was assisted by a number of factors. These included <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/gulf-coalition-operations-in-yemen-part-3-maritime-and-aerial-blockade">a shift in the UAE’s military focus</a> in Yemen and Ethiopian assurances of more trade and some financing to upgrade the port. </p>
<p>Ethiopia’s diplomatic push – which coincided with developments across the Gulf of Aden – finally got it the result it craved. In May 2016, DP World, a global mega-ports operator, signed an agreement to develop and manage Berbera Port <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/dubais-dp-world-agrees-to-manage-port-in-somaliland-for-30-years-1464549937">for 30 years</a>.</p>
<h2>The Berbera Port deal</h2>
<p>It is unlikely that DP World would have signed the deal if it didn’t see some <a href="http://risingpowersproject.com/quarterly/ethiopia-berbera-port-shifting-balance-power-horn-africa/">long-term commercial benefit</a>. The deal also includes economic, military and political dimensions. </p>
<p>Economically, for example, there will be investments in Somaliland’s fisheries, transportation and hospitality industry. The UAE will also establish a <a href="http://www.janes.com/article/75758/uae-base-in-somaliland-under-construction">military installation</a> in Berbera. The base is intended to help the UAE tighten its blockade against Yemen and stop weapons being smuggled from Iran.</p>
<p>Politically, the Berbera Port deal has provoked mixed reactions in Somaliland. There has been some popular anger aimed at Somaliland’s former president, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud aka “Silanyo”, and his family who <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/somali-official-says-somaliland-deal-with-uae-corrupt-illegal/3724682.html">reportedly benefited personally</a> from it. Anger also stems from inter-clan and sub-clan rivalry over land, particularly in the Berbera area. </p>
<p>But the anger in Somaliland pales in comparison to the reaction in Mogadishu. This is because the Somaliland government has remained largely isolated internationally – until the port deal.</p>
<p>Somalia Federal Government ministers have <a href="http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/02/15/510655/Somalia-UAE-military-base-Somaliland-Nur-Jimale-Farah-Berbera-Yemeni-conflict">publicly challenged</a> the right of Somaliland to enter into official agreements with any country. The Ethiopian-driven deal means that Mogadishu’s claims over the breakaway territory have weakened substantially. The deal means that Somaliland has partially broken the glass ceiling of international recognition by entering into substantive deals with viable business partners and states operating <a href="http://risingpowersproject.com/quarterly/ethiopia-berbera-port-shifting-balance-power-horn-africa/">on the global stage</a>. Mogadishu can no longer pretend it controls the government in Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa. </p>
<h2>Ethiopia’s wins</h2>
<p>The bottom line is that Ethiopia has engineered access to another port and enhanced its security and strategic economic interests. With the growth in annual volumes of transit cargo, Ethiopia has, for a long time, needed <a href="http://www.portstrategy.com/news101/insight-and-opinion/post-script/The-Berbera-option">alternative routes</a> from Djibouti. </p>
<p>In addition, Ethiopia has ensured its presence in the running of the port by acquiring a <a href="https://www.khaleejtimes.com/ethiopia-acquires-19-stake-in-dp-world-berbera-port">19% share</a> in the deal.</p>
<p>And by wangling a legally binding agreement between Somaliland and another state, Ethiopia has potentially paved the way for eventual international recognition of Hargeisa. </p>
<p>Ethiopia has also further cemented its hold over Somaliland through a combination of pressure and material incentives. By bringing significant outside investment and recognition, Ethiopia can also increasingly meddle in its internal affairs. This is a conundrum for Hargeisa. It finds itself increasingly emboldened to act independently. Yet it remains constrained by the need to get Addis Ababa’s approval. </p>
<p>As Ethiopia begins to move increasing amounts of goods and services on Somaliland’s new highway to the refurbished port of Berbera, Hargeisa may begin to question key aspects of the port deal. </p>
<p>But one aspect will not be in question: Ethiopia’s rising power and influence over the entire region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A deal brokered by Ethiopia to develop the port at Berbera will have a ripple effect across the Horn of Africa.Brendon J. Cannon, Assistant Professor of International Security, Institute of International & Civil Security (IICS), Khalifa UniversityAsh Rossiter, Assistant Professor of International Security, Department of Humanities & Social Science, Khalifa UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/929362018-03-18T11:06:53Z2018-03-18T11:06:53ZKenya is paying a heavy human and financial cost for unsafe abortions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210332/original/file-20180314-113465-lmt7xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. Kenya's health system is under huge pressure.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/DANIEL IRUNGU</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the critical targets for countries that are trying to meet the sustainable development goals is reducing the number of mothers who die from complications during or immediately after their pregnancies. The <a href="http://www.who.int/sdg/targets/en/">target for 2030</a> is that each country will have less than 70 mothers dying for each of the 100 000 live births that happen each year. This would eliminate almost all preventable maternal deaths. </p>
<p>In Kenya, this is still a challenge. Every year <a href="http://kenya.unfpa.org/news/counties-highest-burden-maternal-mortality">for every 100 000 births 495 women die</a>. One of the major contributors to this figure are the complications that women sustain during unsafe abortions.</p>
<p>Unsafe abortions happen when a pregnancy is terminated by someone who lacks the necessary skills and in places that aren’t medically certified.</p>
<p>In Kenya, an abortion is only legal when there is a need for emergency treatment or the life or health of the mother is in danger. Permission for an abortion must be granted by a trained health professional. </p>
<p>The latest data for Kenya (from 2012) shows that there were <a href="http://aphrc.org/post/publications/incidence-and-complications-of-unsafe-abortion-in-kenya-key-findings-of-a-national-study">close to half a million</a> unsafe abortions in the country that year. At least 100 000 of those women needed to be treated in hospital. And roughly a quarter died due to complications. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://aphrc.org/post/publications/costs-treating-unsafe-abortion-complications-public-health-facilities-kenya">our study</a> we evaluated the costs – both financial and those related to human resources in health facilities – that Kenya’s public health facilities incurred treating complications stemming from unsafe abortions. </p>
<p>We calculated that in 2012 the Kenyan government would have spent an estimated US $5.1 million treating women who had developed complications from unsafe abortions. We estimated that by 2016 this figure would have gone up to US $5.2 million.</p>
<p>This is roughly what the Kenyan government spends funding free primary health care for six months of the year. And the same amount could provide effective contraceptives to about 50 000 Kenyan women who are of reproductive age. Treating these women also puts additional strain on Kenya’s already stretched health care system.</p>
<p>To manage the problem Kenya needs to take urgent action to implement policies and laws that it has in place that are designed to protect women, particularly their reproductive rights. For example, women need better access to a range of contraceptives. </p>
<p>But this kind of change requires political will to strengthen governmental institutions and agencies mandated to protect women’s health. </p>
<h2>Counting the costs</h2>
<p>For our study we analysed the national and regional distribution of abortion complications by caseload and severity along with data on the direct costs attached to these. We interviewed health care providers in panels and individually. And then we also looked at the amount of time health care providers spent with patients, the drugs they prescribed, and the supplies they required. </p>
<p>Using these details we were able to calculate the costs for treating mild, moderate and severe complications. We were also able to establish which region in Kenya spent the most to treat complications. </p>
<p>We found that most of the complications were moderate to severe. These were classified as medical emergencies, meaning they either were or could quickly become life threatening if they were not treated immediately. To treat these complications patients required extended hospital stays, intensive care, and needed to be attended by highly skilled health providers.</p>
<p>Health care workers could spend over 12 hours treating a patient with such complications. The procedures ranged from draining an abscess in the pelvis to repairing a cervical or vaginal tear.</p>
<p>About 35% of the cases were classified as severe but they accounted for more than half of the total costs. As expected, severe complications cost the most: US $2.7 million in total while treating moderate complications totalled US $1.7 million. Mild complications cost US $646,234. </p>
<p>At the per-case level, typical treatment could cost on average US $39 for mild complications to US $108 for severe complications. But our cost estimates were conservative. They exclude patients’ missed days of work, facility space, cost of referrals, and overheads. </p>
<p>Our analysis showed that facilities in Rift Valley and Western regions of Kenya had spent more than the other seven regions treating the complications of unsafe abortions. They also had the greatest numbers of women admitted. </p>
<h2>Responding to the problem</h2>
<p>To reduce the number of unsafe abortions in Kenya, the root cause of the problems need to be addressed. There are several. </p>
<p>For one, Kenya has a variety of policies around sexual and reproductive health rights through which public facilities are mandated to protect girls’ and women’s health. But in many regions women don’t have access to contraceptives. </p>
<p>If these policies are implemented it would accelerate access to contraception. Health providers, women, and communities need to be educated about these policies and what they mean for womens’ rights to contraception, the prevention of unsafe abortions, and the availability of quality post abortion care. </p>
<p>Women and men must also be able to access information about the most effective methods of contraception to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and the complications that arise from these procedures.</p>
<p>In addition, family planning services need to be improved and more contraceptive choices need to be offered to girls and women. And post-abortion services – both family planning counselling and access to services – need to be available. </p>
<p><em>* Hailemichael Gebreselassie, a senior research advisor at Ipas, a global non-profit that works to reduce maternal mortality, contributed to the writing of this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Estelle Monique Sidze does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Kenya spends millions treating women who have complications after unsafe abortions.Estelle Monique Sidze, Associate Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/928522018-03-15T15:24:32Z2018-03-15T15:24:32ZHow we recreated a lost African city with laser technology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209507/original/file-20180308-30986-1iluhpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C43%2C2241%2C1340&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">LiDAR, was used to "redraw" the remains of the city, along the lower western slopes of the Suikerbosrand hills near Johannesburg. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Karim Sadr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are lost cities all over the world. Some, like the remains of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42916261">Mayan cities</a> hidden beneath a thick canopy of rainforest in Mesoamerica, are found with the help of laser lights.</p>
<p>Now the same technology which located those Mayan cities has been used to rediscover a southern African city that was occupied from the 15th century until about 200 years ago. This technology, called LiDAR, was used to “redraw” the remains of the city, along the lower western slopes of the Suikerbosrand hills near Johannesburg. </p>
<p>It is one of <a href="https://www.academia.edu/7337019/SETTLEMENTS_LANDSCAPES_AND_IDENTITIES_AMONG_THE_TSWANA_OF_THE_WESTERN_TRANSVAAL_AND_EASTERN_KALAHARI_BEFORE_1820">several large settlements</a> occupied by Tswana-speakers that dotted the northern parts of South Africa for generations before the first European travellers encountered them in the early years of the nineteenth century. In the 1820s all these Tswana city states collapsed in what became known as the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/political-changes-1750-1835">Difeqane civil wars</a>. Some had never been documented in writing and their oral histories had gone unrecorded. </p>
<p>Four or five decades ago, several ancient Tswana ruins in and around the Suikerbosrand hills, about 60 kilometres south of Johannesburg, had been excavated by archaeologists from the University of the Witwatersrand. But from ground level and on aerial photos the full extent of this settlement could not be appreciated because vegetation hides many of the ruins.</p>
<p>But LiDAR, which uses laser light, <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzb3V0aGVybmdhdXRlbmdzd3N8Z3g6NDA3NTU4ZGI2N2M4MmI2Yg">allowed my students and I</a> to create images of the landscape and virtually strip away the vegetation. This permits unimpeded aerial views of the ancient buildings and monuments. </p>
<p>We have given the city a generic placeholder name for now – SKBR. We hope an appropriate Tswana name can eventually be adopted.</p>
<h2>Bringing the city to life</h2>
<p>Judging by the dated architectural styles that were common at SKBR, it’s estimated that the builders of the stone walled structures occupied this area from the fifteenth century AD until the second half of the 1800s. </p>
<p>The evidence we gathered suggests that SKBR was certainly large enough to be called a city. The <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=ZEX-yZOAG9IC&pg=PA40&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false">ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur</a> was less than 2km in diameter while SKBR is nearly 10km long and about 2km wide.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209509/original/file-20180308-30989-jigewb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209509/original/file-20180308-30989-jigewb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209509/original/file-20180308-30989-jigewb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209509/original/file-20180308-30989-jigewb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209509/original/file-20180308-30989-jigewb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209509/original/file-20180308-30989-jigewb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209509/original/file-20180308-30989-jigewb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ancient homesteads at Suikerbosrand are shown against an aerial photograph from 1961. The two rectangles show the footprint of the LiDAR imagery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Karim Sadr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is difficult to estimate the size of its population. Between 750 and 850 homesteads have been counted at SKBR, but it’s hard to tell how many of these were inhabited at the same time, so we cannot easily estimate the city’s population at its peak. </p>
<p>Given what we know about more recent Tswana settlements, each homestead would have housed an extended family with, at the least, the (male) head of the homestead, one or more wives and their children.</p>
<p>Many features of the built environment at SKBR seem to signal the wealth and status of the homesteads or suburbs that they are associated with. For example, parallel pairs of rock alignments mark sections of passageways in several different parts of the city. </p>
<p>South African archaeologist Professor Revil Mason, who has carried out <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzb3V0aGVybmdhdXRlbmdzd3N8Z3g6NzJmNzUyNjE0ZDQwOWM5MA">a great deal of research</a> on stone walled ruins around Johannesburg, called these features cattle drives, built to funnel the beasts along certain routes through the city.</p>
<p>If these were cattle drives the width and location of these passageways would have signalled the livestock wealth of the ward or homestead that constructed them, even when the cattle were not present.</p>
<p>In the central sector of SKBR there are two very large stone walled enclosures, with a combined area of just under 10, 000 square meters. They may have been kraals and if so they could have held nearly a thousand head of cattle.</p>
<h2>Monuments to wealth</h2>
<p>Among the largest features of the built environment at SKBR are artificial mounds composed of masses of ash from cattle dung fires, mixed with bones of livestock and broken pottery vessels. All this material appears to have been deliberately piled up at the entrance to the larger homesteads. </p>
<p>These are the remains of feasts and the ash heaps’ size publicised the particular homestead’s generosity and wealth. The use of refuse dumps as <a href="http://www.ucalgary.ca/uofc/others/sukur/Cult/HidiMidden/HMreport2013Main.pdf">landmarks of wealth and power</a> is known from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278416504000352">other parts of the world</a>, like India, as well. Even the contemporary gold mine dumps of Johannesburg can be seen in this light.</p>
<p>Other monuments to wealth and power at SKBR include a large number of short and squat <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzb3V0aGVybmdhdXRlbmdzd3N8Z3g6MzU2N2VlN2NkNzVlZmM3Zg">stone towers</a> – on average 1.8 - 2.5 metres tall and about 5 metres wide at their base. The homesteads with the most stone towers tend to also have unusually large ash heaps at their entrance. The practical function of the towers isn’t known yet: they may have been the bases for grain bins, or they may mark burials of important people.</p>
<p>It will take another decade or two of field work to fully understand the birth, development and ultimate demise of this African city. This will be done through additional coverage with LiDAR, intensive ground surveys as well as excavations in selected localities. </p>
<p>Ideally, the descendants of those who built and inhabited this city should be involved in future research at this site. Some of my postgraduate students are already in contact with representatives of the Bakwena branch of the Tswana who claim parts of the landscape to the south of Johannesburg. We hope that they will actively become involved in our research project.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92852/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karim Sadr receives funding from the National Research Foundation and from the University of the Witwatersrand.</span></em></p>Technology which located Mayan cities has been used to rediscover a southern African city from the 15th century.Karim Sadr, Professor Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/934342018-03-15T11:44:27Z2018-03-15T11:44:27ZHow investigative journalists helped turn the tide against corruption in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210544/original/file-20180315-104699-hfaun8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Journalists quiz former South African president Jacob Zuma. Relentless pressure led to his resignation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year South African investigative journalists are recognised for their hard work when the winners of the <a href="http://www.journalism.co.za/blog/amabhungane-daily-maverick-news24-investigation-wins-2017-taco-kuiper-award/">Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism</a> are announced. This year has provided a chance to assess the highs and the lows of our investigative reporting after an extraordinary year.</p>
<p>For the last few years, it seemed that the country was facing an impervious culture of impunity. Many state institutions of accountability faltered, and corruption appeared to be undermining democracy and destroying the economy. But small groups of investigative journalists beavered away. They pieced together the elements of what grew into a remarkable story of a systematic attempt to control the machinery of state for personal gain – what has become known <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-state-capture-is-a-regressive-step-for-any-society-56837">as state capture</a>.</p>
<p>For some time it had been a back-and-forth of allegation and counter-allegation, charge and denial. But in the last few months things turned around with the emergence of a <a href="http://www.gupta-leaks.com/">trove of leaked emails</a>. These provided the hard evidence of the depth and breadth of the attempt to take control of elements of the state. Teams of journalists did meticulous and highly skilled work to mine the emails and weave together a full picture.</p>
<p>South Africa now appears to have started – only started, as there is a long way to go – the process of forcing accountability and transparency on those who were responsible, and can appreciate how central journalists have been to this apparent turnaround.</p>
<p>I know of only a few times in the history of a nation when journalists have played such a clear and crucial role in bringing a country back from the brink. South Africa’s journalists were not alone in this. They worked side-by-side with civil society and the judiciary in particular. But never has it been clearer how important a free press, skilled investigative reporters and the support of brave editors is to a democracy, its economy and the people who live in it.</p>
<h2>Important trends</h2>
<p>Some important trends can be seen from this year’s Taco Kuiper Awards. </p>
<p>The major one was how much of this work has become collaborative. The collaboration has not only been in the form of teams of people working together. What’s different is that the teams have cut across media outlets and types. This is an international pattern, as the scale and complexity of large investigative stories are often too much for one journalist or even one newsroom to handle. </p>
<p>What’s also notable about the South African experience is that journalists from different newsrooms didn’t just cooperate, but helped, promoted and protected each other.</p>
<p>Print and online journalists led the charge with the power of the broadcast media only occasionally being brought to bear. And most of the best work was done with the support of philanthropists and foundations, rather than in commercial newsrooms. This is a major signal of where South Africa’s journalism is headed.</p>
<p>Interesting too is that although there was one big story, there was also a remarkable array of other investigative work. A science writer used mortality data <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-01-12-00-long-quest-to-understand-these-bodies-without-identities">to expose</a> the problem that one in 10 bodies in the country’s mortuaries are unclaimed and get pauper’ burials. Another used sophisticated tools <a href="https://techcentral.co.za/go-inside-guptabot-fake-news-network/76767/">to uncover</a> who lay behind fake news websites. And one journalist went in search of former mineworkers who could not be found to give them their pensions. <a href="http://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/2017/09/25/list-former-mine-workers-eligible-pensions/">He showed</a> that they were easily found, and their lives would be radically changed by getting the money owed to them.</p>
<p>This is work that changed the lives of ordinary people. </p>
<h2>Rise in harassment</h2>
<p>The last year also saw a rise in the intimidation and harassment of journalists in the country. This included violent <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1506751/watch-coligny-farmer-attacks-black-journalist/">attacks on reporters</a> at work, threats to those covering contentious issues and the <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-09-04-how-the-gupta-campaign-weaponised-social-media/">“weaponisation” of social media</a> – the use of robots and fake news to target critical journalists.</p>
<p>Thuggish protesters threatened <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-06-30-mob-attacks-top-journalists/">an editor in his home</a>, and <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2017/07/30/police-investigate-after-blf-members-disrupt-journalists-event">disrupted a public meeting</a> of journalists. Fake news perpetrators targeted editors, and for the first time that I know of journalists took out a <a href="https://www.enca.com/south-africa/sanef-happy-with-blf-ruling">restraining order</a> against organisations and individuals that were responsible for some of this activity. Veteran muckraker Jacques Pauw was <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-02-28-hawks-raid-jacques-pauws-house/">pursued by authorities</a> who wanted to stop him publishing and get his sources.</p>
<p>The other negative trend was that a few news outlets were accused of promoting or supporting state capture, where journalists allowed themselves to be used by those who wanted to cover up what they were doing. This drives home, the award judges said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the need for vigilance and the utmost professionalism to ensure that journalists build trust and credibility and serve the public interest – rather than narrow, personal or factional interests.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Anton Harber is convenor of judges in the Taco Kuiper Awards, hosted by Wits Journalism with the Valley Trust.</strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anton Harber chairs the Judging Panel for the Taco Kuiper Awards, funded by the Valley Trust, who also are also funding partners in the Taco Kuiper Chair in Investigative Reporting, the Taco Kuiper Grants and the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC). </span></em></p>South African investigative journalists and civil society played a crucial role in bringing a country in the clutches of patronage networks back from the brink.Anton Harber, Caxton Professor of Journalism, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/934322018-03-15T09:17:55Z2018-03-15T09:17:55ZTrump should be the trigger for Africa to find common cause with Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210505/original/file-20180315-104659-an5w3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">US President Donald Trump after sacking Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Shawn Thew</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>To reassure and reiterate America’s commitments to a positive Africa agenda of cooperation US President Donald Trump sent his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, to the continent in early March. But four hours after he arrived back in Washington after a whistle-stop tour of five African countries, Tillerson learned in a Trump tweet that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/03/13/world/africa/13reuters-usa-trump-africa.html">he had been fired</a>.</p>
<p>Africans had reasons to be sceptical about the Tillerson trip even before it began, as I argued before <a href="http://theconversation.com/three-reasons-why-africa-should-treat-tillerson-visit-with-scepticism-92849">he set off</a>. But I had not anticipated that Tillerson and his mission would also be dramatically and precipitately diminished.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that Africa-US relations will improve as long as Trump remains president. The president has appointed Mike Pompeo, director of the CIA, as his new secretary of state. Before joining the administration, Pompeo served as a conservative Republican congressman from <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/mike-pompeo-121317">rural Kansas</a>. He has no notable foreign policy experience, much less interest in or knowledge of, African affairs. </p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean that African leaders should throw up their hands in despair. The Trump era, if approached with wisdom, offers opportunities for new ways of examining issues, new alliances and new areas of cooperation. This is because Trump has triggered concerns that are shared by democrats on both sides of the Atlantic, such as the need to fight racism and the need for strong democratic institutions.</p>
<h2>Partnerships</h2>
<p>Africans, of course, have other important relationships to pursue with other non-African partners. Planning for the next Forum for China-Africa Cooperation, is well underway, and most African leaders are expected to attend the September gathering in <a href="http://www.focac.org/eng/">Beijing</a>. </p>
<p>Africa was also high on the agenda of last June’s G-20 summit in Germany, despite <a href="http://theconversation.com/africa-is-high-on-the-g20-summit-agenda-but-will-trump-thwart-progress-80029">Trump’s indifference</a> to the gathering.</p>
<p>But the US is too important for African countries to ignore. Preparing and promoting a more active and constructive African strategy for engaging America, whoever is in power, was discussed at a diverse gathering of scholars and officials at Wits University, on March 8 to 10. This also marked the official launch of a new African Centre for the <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/giving-to-wits/documents/Wits%20African%20Centre%20for%20the%20Study%20of%20the%20United%20States%202017.pdf">Study of the United States</a>.</p>
<p>Three aspirations of the new centre are noteworthy. One is that its agenda will be demand driven. This means it will be set by what Africans from around the continent most need – and want to know – to manage their relations with America. </p>
<p>Another is that the agenda will be much broader and deeper than conventional international relations and the foreign police agendas of sovereign states. </p>
<p>Thirdly, a multi-disciplinary approach to research and training will be adopted. The aim will be twofold. Firstly to achieve short-term political and policy relevance for Africa. Secondly, to illuminate longer term trends of integration regionally and globally that can accelerate as Africans and Americans learn and teach each other.</p>
<h2>Shared agendas</h2>
<p>One potentially positive, if unintentional, effect of Trump’s actions thus far, has been to stir up resistance and fresh soul-searching among Americans about basic issues and values that are shared with Africa. Several examples stand out: gender, race, economic inclusion, the freedom and integrity of the press, the judiciary and elections. All are complex yet crucial for sustainable democracy and constitutional order in African countries as well as the US.</p>
<p>Since Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/the-inaugural-address/">inauguration</a> in January 2017, new political pressure has been unleashed for gender justice and equality. Campaigns such as the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-rising-pressure-of-the-metoo-backlash">#MeToo movement</a>, for example, have quickly spread globally. If, as current US polling suggests, this influences voting patterns in upcoming Congressional and Presidential elections, there will likely be secondary foreign relations effects across Africa as well.</p>
<p>Trump has also been the catalyst for new degrees of both racial awareness as well as injustice. One of America’s leading black writers, Ta-Neshi Coats, aptly describes Trump as America’s “first white president’ in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Were-Eight-Years-Power/dp/0399590560">We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy</a>. This is because Trump, unlike any of his predecessors, campaigns and rules as a white-ethnic-nationalist.</p>
<p>Africans need to critically assess whether, in reaction, a coalition of diverse identities predominates in upcoming elections. Either way, the outcome will have an impact on Africa-US relations.</p>
<h2>Containing Trump</h2>
<p>Three key elements essential to protecting and defending democracy – on the continent and elsewhere in the world – are now crucial in containing Trump’s threats to democracy.</p>
<p>One is maintaining the integrity of free and factual reporting by the media. The others are a strong and resilient independent judiciary, and credible elections. The world is living through a period of ill-liberalism. This is being marked by the triumph of strongmen over constitutional orders which has become a global scourge.</p>
<p>Trump will continue to dominate world headlines in 2018. But on July 18, South Africans and the world will pause to celebrate the centennial of the birth of Nelson Mandela. No one better exemplifies the democratic ideals that Trump defiles. Africans and Americans must rededicate themselves to strive for the standards Mandela revered. Perhaps then we will be touched again by what America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, knew were <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/31631-we-are-not-enemies-but-friends-we-must-not-be">"the better angels of our nature”</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John J Stremlau is a Wits Visiting Professor in International Relations, the 2017 Bradlow Fellow at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), an unpaid Adviser to the African Centre for the Study of the United States (ACSUS), and a Board member of the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA). </span></em></p>Relations between the US and Africa are unlikely to improve while Trump remains president. But that doesn’t mean the continent should remain passive.John J Stremlau, 2017 Bradlow Fellow at SA Institute of International Affairs, Visiting Professor of International Relations, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/927502018-03-14T14:32:54Z2018-03-14T14:32:54ZWhy universities need to invest in strong advice systems for students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209505/original/file-20180308-30965-1sds1h3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Proper guidance, support and advice can help university students enormously.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is relatively rare for a young person to leave school knowing on their own exactly what they want to do next. And, even if they do, it’s unusual to seamlessly and independently go to university, complete the degree of their choosing, graduate, and move into the working world.</p>
<p>For most young people the world beyond school is complicated. They need a great deal of support – particularly from their families and universities – to navigate their higher education choices. This is borne out by <a href="http://www.africanminds.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/9781928331698_web.pdf">a recent study</a> which tracked the experiences of 73 students who, some six years before, had started bachelor’s studies at one of three research-intensive South African universities.</p>
<p>The study focused on how young people navigate the opportunities and constraints of university study. One of the key findings was that the country’s universities seem mostly to have limited capacity for giving students advice about academic choices. In some other parts of the world, most notably the US, <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-za/Academic+Advising:+A+Comprehensive+Handbook,+2nd+Edition-p-9780470371701">this is a whole field of expertise within a university</a>, with dedicated staff focused solely on giving students advice.</p>
<p>There is substantial literature showing the <a href="https://works.bepress.com/samuel_museus/12/">positive effects of academic advising</a> on student retention and progress, especially for those from underrepresented groups in higher education.</p>
<p>As we <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-class-and-social-capital-affect-university-students-92602">point out elsewhere</a> in the book on which this research is based, many of the students we interviewed didn’t have the support structures at home that could offer informed advice about issues such as the choice of institution, degree, funding routes. Proper advisory systems in universities can be especially helpful in this context. </p>
<p>It’s not easy. South Africa’s universities are dealing with a <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/saturday-star/dispelling-myths-around-higher-education-funding-12947553">huge resource crunch</a> and it takes money to set up many of the systems that would be needed. </p>
<p>But it’s a worthwhile investment. Universities that can formalise academic advising and make it more accessible are likely to see better results in students progressing from enrolment to graduation. </p>
<h2>Some interventions</h2>
<p>While few universities appear to have formal, full-time advising structures, there are one-off or informal interventions at some South African institutions.</p>
<p>At one institution for example, there were sample introductory lectures at the start of the year. Students found this very helpful though they pointed out that attending just one lecture wasn’t necessarily enough to make a fully informed decision about whether to pursue that course or degree path.</p>
<p>Some universities also allowed students to change courses within the first few weeks of the academic year. But this can be tricky because students then need to make up what they’ve missed.</p>
<p>Some students spoke of establishing a rapport with individual lecturers and even their deans. This meant they could discuss their plans and choices with someone who was well informed. But this was relatively rare at the larger universities and was left largely to chance – requiring both students with confidence and initiative, and supportive, engaged academics</p>
<p>It also wasn’t always a successful approach: in our study we did hear of situations where the advice students received from academics was incorrect or even insulting. One student who was struggling in a science degree, for example, was told that she was a “pretty girl” and maybe she should change to a degree in education.</p>
<h2>Flexibility</h2>
<p>Some work is being done in South Africa to improve the situation. The National Student Financial Aid System is <a href="http://www.nsfas.org.za/content/publications/FINAL%20-%20A%20NSFAS%20Response%20to%20the%20MTT%20Missing%20Middle%20Report%2031%20January%202017.pdf">looking at models</a> for more broader support for the students it funds. This is good news, since these students are often those whose families may not have the social capital and information to support their decisions. </p>
<p>Another thing that universities should consider is a more flexible curriculum structure. Our research also found that where the curriculum is fairly fixed and university rules preclude much movement between programmes, there is little opportunity for navigating a successful pathway. This is a problem for students who only become aware of their skills and passions along the way and wish to change their degree course. A flexible curriculum coupled with strong advice structures could make a real difference to such students.</p>
<p>_This is an edited abstract from “Going to University: The influence of Higher Education on the lives of young South Africans” (2018) Case, J., Marshall, D., McKenna, S. & Mogashana, D. African Minds. Available for <a href="http://www.africanminds.co.za/dd-product/going-to-university-the-influence-of-higher-education-on-the-lives-of-young-south-africans/">download here</a>. </p>
<p><em>The other authors of the book from which this piece is extracted are Professor Sioux McKenna (Head of Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes University), Professor Delia Marshall (Faculty of Natural Science at the University of the Western Cape) and Dr Disaapele Mogashana (student success coach and consultant at <a href="http://www.mytsi.co.za/">True Success Institute</a>).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92750/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors of the book 'Going to University: The influence of higher education on the lives of young South Africans' are grateful for the financial support of the NRF.</span></em></p>Formal, accessible academic advice systems can help university graduation rates.Jennifer M. Case, Department Head and Professor, Department of Engineering Education, Virginia TechLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/931002018-03-13T16:39:42Z2018-03-13T16:39:42ZHere are five signs that universities are turning into corporations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209897/original/file-20180312-30958-jg1jzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When paperwork, forms and bureaucracy start to dominate, universities suffer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stock-asso/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities in many parts of the world are buckling under multiple financial, societal and political demands. This has led to increasingly loud calls for what are called “enhanced efficiencies” – a term drawn from the business world.</p>
<p>And some institutions are heeding those calls. They’re drawing wholesale on the logic of the market in their bid to survive. They are becoming administrative universities without truly understanding how such initiatives chip away at the very purpose of higher education: the academic project. </p>
<p>The nature of the academic project differs from institution to institution – some will focus more on workplace employment, others on critical citizenship, and so on. But it will always be about the furthering of knowledge and the development of knowers. </p>
<p>In 2011, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-fall-of-the-faculty-9780199782444?cc=za&lang=en&">Benjamin Ginsberg</a>, political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, argued that US universities were losing hold of the academic project by becoming administrative institutions. </p>
<p>He also showed that as student numbers increased across the US, the number of academics being employed to teach them and guide their research rose at the same or a slightly slower pace. But there was an astounding simultaneous increase in executive positions, usually people with business rather than academic acumen. </p>
<p>Despite these warnings, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03054980500117827?journalCode=core20">other countries</a> have followed the US’s lead. South Africa is <a href="http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/sajhe/article/view/184">among them</a>. This is cause for concern for both those inside universities and those in broader society who benefit from having a strong academic sector that fosters sustainable development, builds democracy and contributes to various other public goods.</p>
<p>It is crucial to ensure that the academic project at South African universities is vigorously and bravely safeguarded.</p>
<h2>Five signs</h2>
<p>South Africa’s universities are turning into administrative institutions for several reasons. They’re dealing with crippling financial constraints; their costs are rising, but state funding is not matching these increases. There’s also a need to decolonise the structure and content of the curriculum. </p>
<p><a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED091983">Massification</a> – the rapid growth of student numbers – is another issue. <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/media_and_publications/monitoring-and-evaluation/vitalstats-public-higher-education-2014">More than 20%</a> of South Africans aged between 18 and 23 are now at university. The system has to attend to a diverse student body with highly uneven <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/the-effects-of-apartheids-unequal-education-system-can-still-be-felt-today-2035295">schooling</a> and other prior experiences.</p>
<p>Leaders at many institutions seem to think the solution lies in learning from the world of business and putting more administrative structures in place. </p>
<p>There are five tell-tale signs of the administrative university: </p>
<p><strong>1. New executive positions (and salaries):</strong> These positions, almost always prefaced by the words “executive director”, are becoming increasingly common. Their roles are related to everything from human resources to strategic planning to quality assurance. Each comes with a number of support staff – and a lot of meetings. </p>
<p>Individually such posts seem reasonable. Collectively, they shift the institution from university to corporation.</p>
<p><strong>2. Appointments, not elections:</strong> In administrative universities deans are appointed by a selection committee, usually with a strong focus on their management skills. They must implement management decisions down into faculties and are often hired on contract with clearly stated performance targets. </p>
<p>Gone is the elected dean, chosen by a specific faculty to offer academic leadership, defend the academic project, and represent the needs and concerns of staff and students to management.</p>
<p><strong>3. Decisions and policies:</strong> The moment the “executive management” team is made up of more administrator positions than academic ones, it is unlikely that decisions will primarily serve the academic project. Administrative efficiency, legal compliance and financial sustainability are all vitally important. But decisions and policies around these issues must first and foremost follow the logic of the academic project </p>
<p><strong>4. Regulatory frameworks:</strong> Administrative universities love a politically correct catchphrase. In South Africa, the current favourites are transparency and social justice. These terms are then used to justify the implementation of many one-size-fits-all regulatory frameworks which govern every process from admission through to graduation. </p>
<p>Of course decisions need to be transparent, recorded and justified but we also need to make sure that decisions are based on what is fairest in a particular context. It cannot be considered social justice when processes become swathed in bureaucracy with no flexibility to take individual contexts into account in a very uneven society.</p>
<p><strong>5. Quick fixes:</strong> Because these administrators set themselves up as being responsible for instilling efficiency into every aspect of the system, there is significant role confusion. </p>
<p>Soon, as Ginsberg <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/the-fall-of-the-faculty-the-rise-of-the-all-administrative-university-and-why-it-matters/418285.article">showed in the US</a>, administrators are commenting on issues which are entirely entwined with the academic project. Proposed common sense “interventions”, like add-on remedial classes, are advocated as being supportive. But they actually fly in the face of well documented teaching and <a href="http://cristal.epubs.ac.za/index.php/cristal/article/view/80">learning research</a>. </p>
<h2>Bureaucratic bloat</h2>
<p>This article is not an attack on the dedicated individual administrators who help universities run smoothly. They are as crucial to keeping institutions going as academic staff. And they, just like academic staff, become badly overburdened in an overly administrative university. The issue is that introducing significant, expensive administrative structures too often comes at the cost of the pursuit and development of knowledge. </p>
<p>The blame for this bloat of bureaucracy doesn’t only rest with executive administrators. Academics have ceded the academic project to the empty rhetoric of efficiency. For academics to collectively resist these processes, they need to put up their hands to take on leadership roles and to participate in processes aimed at keeping the academic project as their university’s central driving logic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sioux McKenna receives funding from the National Research Foundation for research on institutional differentiation in South African Higher Education.</span></em></p>It’s crucial to ensure that the academic project at universities is vigorously and bravely safeguarded.Sioux McKenna, Director of PG Studies & Higher Education Studies PhD Co-ordinator, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932162018-03-13T08:28:46Z2018-03-13T08:28:46ZTillerson’s visit to Africa confirms America’s policy is all about security<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210054/original/file-20180313-30994-11ise0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Addis Ababa during his African tour.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>US President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/Tillerson-heads-to-Africa/1066-4331716-3wudbez/index.html">sent</a> his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Africa in an attempt to mend relations after the president’s unprecedented insult of an entire continent, referring to African states as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/12/unkind-divisive-elitist-international-outcry-over-trumps-shithole-countries-remark">“shithole countries”</a>. The trip took place after more than a year of neglect from the White House and State Department.</p>
<p>The five countries chosen for Tillerson’s visit confirms the perception that Washington’s first and foremost interest in Africa is security. So far the secretary of state has had nothing to offer to his African partners. This may well be because the Trump administration still doesn’t have a policy towards Africa. An assistant secretary of state for Africa hasn’t been appointed yet, nor have ambassadors to a number of African countries, including South Africa. </p>
<p>The lack of an Africa policy may explain the public outcry that followed the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/17/world/africa/niger-ambush-american-soldiers.html">killing of four US special forces</a> in northern Niger in October last year. The biggest problem for the public and for the politicians on Capitol Hill was quite simple: what were US soldiers doing in Niger? For that matter what are American special forces doing in Africa? How is it at all possible that the US has deployed more than 6,000 troops on the continent when the official policy still is ‘no boots on the ground’? </p>
<p>The White House never delivered an official answer to these obvious questions. But Tillerson’s itinerary in East and West Africa provides some clues. The trip had everything to do with security. And little else.</p>
<h2>The stopovers</h2>
<p>In Ethiopia, his first stop, Tillerson took the opportunity to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-africa/africa-should-avoid-forfeiting-sovereignty-to-china-over-loans-tillerson-idUSKCN1GK114">criticise China’s large and growing economic engagement</a> all over Africa. China “promotes dependency” and it “undermines the sovereignty of Africa”, Tillerson said. </p>
<p>But apart from criticism, Tillerson didn’t have much to offer by way of economics and investments. By contrast, evidence of China’s engagement in the country can be seen at every turn. The meeting took place at the AU’s new headquarters which was financed by China. Beijing has also built and paid for the metro running from the airport to the centre of the city. The Chinese also paid for and built the railway line connecting Addis Ababa with the port in Djibouti on the Gulf of Aden. </p>
<p>While in Addis Ababa, the US secretary of state also met with representatives of the African Union. The meeting was important because African soldiers conduct <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/peace-operations-africa">peacekeeping missions</a> in a large number of countries on the continent. Before he left Washington Tillerson <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/world/africa/tillerson-africa-new-aid.html">stated</a> that last year, the US supported more than 27 000 African peacekeeping troops deployed in more than 20 countries.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.hoa.africom.mil/story/21815/u-s-secretary-of-state-rex-tillerson-visits-djibouti">second stop</a> on Tillerson’s African roundtrip was the small Horn of Africa state of Djibouti where the Americans have had a permanent base – ‘Camp Lemonnier’ – since 2001. Situated close to Somalia, Yemen and the Indian Ocean, the base has been a crucial fulcrum for the US global war on terror. The camp has been the home base for some 2 000 servicemen and Washington has just signed a new lease agreement for another 30 years. </p>
<p>Last year China <a href="https://qz.com/1056257/how-a-tiny-african-country-became-the-worlds-key-military-base/">opened its own naval base</a> only a few miles from ‘Camp Lemonnier’.</p>
<p>It was no coincidence that the third stop was <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2018/03/11/rex-tillerson-resumes-normal-schedule-in-kenya//">Kenya</a>. Even though the <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article24719194.html">US did not back Kenya’s invasion </a>of Somalia in 2011, the Pentagon has supplied the Kenyan Defence Forces with advanced weapons and trained Kenyan soldiers who crossed into Somalia in their hunt for Al-Shaabab fighters and supporters. </p>
<p>The US Secretary of State had no problems with the Kenyan authorities when issues related to the fight against Al-Shabaab were on the table. But Tillerson couldn’t avoid commenting on the big challenges facing Kenya’s democracy in the wake of last year’s election. Nevertheless the US also knows that it can’t apply too much pressure on the Kenyan government. Doing so would risk Kenya threatening to pull its troops from the peacekeeping mission in Somalia.</p>
<p>Tillerson’s fourth stop was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-africa-tillerson/u-s-may-lift-travel-ban-on-important-partner-chad-tillerson-says-idUSKCN1GO10C">Chad</a>, emphasising that his round trip was most of all about strengthening military friendships and security alliances. Chad is a key state for the American anti-terror struggle in West Africa. </p>
<p>Tillerson’s biggest challenge during his visit in N’Djamena was explaining why a close US ally was on Trump’s travel ban list. </p>
<p>Nigeria was the last stop. Once again, the close cooperation on security explains the visit. During several years, Washington has supported the Nigerian army in its attempt to defeat Boko Haram. </p>
<h2>Only one conclusion</h2>
<p>The lesson to be learned from Tillerson’s first trip to Africa as Secretary of State is simple: Africa is important to US security because it is a crucial component in the global war on terror and Islamist radicalisation. The continent is also perceived as a battleground in the global competition between Beijing and Washington. </p>
<p>While China is ready to invest huge sums of money in Africa, the US is not up to doing the same.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93216/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gorm Rye Olsen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The US secretary of state’s visit to five African countries didn’t have much to offer by way of investments and commerce.Gorm Rye Olsen, Professor, Institute for Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/925972018-03-12T14:57:23Z2018-03-12T14:57:23ZSurvey of young people in east Africa shows their values mirror those of adults<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209681/original/file-20180309-30975-1wi2rvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young people are the mirror image of the adult world around them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With an estimated median age of about 17 years, East Africa is one of the youngest regions in the world. By <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/22036">comparison</a>, the median is about 40 in Europe, 38 in North America and 29 in Asia. According recent national census data for Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, about 80% of the population is below 35 years. </p>
<p>The identities, norms and values of this majority generation provide important clues for understanding the future; the world’s collective moral and ethical character. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://data.eadialogueseries.org/">study</a> commissioned by the East Africa Institute of the Aga Khan University, 7,000 18 to 35-year-olds in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda were interviewed between 2014 and 2015. The object was to understand how they thought about themselves and what values and attitudes they held. </p>
<p>About 40% of the respondents saw themselves first and foremost as young people while 34% saw themselves first as citizens of their countries. Only 11% identified themselves by their faith first and 6% identified as members of their family first. Only 3.5% reported their tribe or ethnicity as the first dimension of their identity.</p>
<p>Identifying as young people is consistent with policy and legal categorisations that establish them as a socially distinct category. This distinct identity enhances a sense of esprit de corps and a sense of belonging. This in turn confers a sense of social entitlement as well as shared grievance. </p>
<p>The findings suggest that young people’s identities, values, norms and attitudes are shaped by their families, their communities and by wider society. Our findings are consistent with previous work by sociologists and behavioural and moral economists. </p>
<p>Young people are the mirror image of the adult world around them. This means that any if countries want to change the attitudes and values of young people they need to start the adults – from the family to community to the national level. </p>
<h2>Country differences</h2>
<p>While the study revealed numerous parallels, there were also striking differences. In Kenya for example, the proportion of young people who identified by ethnicity was 4% between ages 18 and 20. But the number nearly doubled to 7.8% between the ages of 21 and 35. The converse was true in Tanzania where ethnicity as a dimension of identity had remained relatively stable (2.3% and 2.9%) from between the ages of 21 and 35 years. </p>
<p>This can be partly explained by the fact that since independence Tanzania, unlike Kenya, has focused on reducing the issue of ethnic identity. Tanzania’s ruling party elite has consistently <a href="https://www.pambazuka.org/pan-africanism/nyerere-nationalism-and-pan-africanism">supported the ethos of Ujamaa</a> - equitable economic production and distribution of public resources to drive social cohesion and economic progress.</p>
<p>About 80% of the young people involved in the survey valued faith first. About half valued work and family first while 37% valued wealth first and a quarter freedom first. </p>
<p>But about 60% admired those who used get-rich-quick schemes. And more than half believed it didn’t matter how one makes money while 53% said they would do anything to get money. The survey found 37% would take or give a bribe and 35% believed there is nothing wrong with corruption. </p>
<p>An outliner was Rwanda where most said they wouldn’t take or give a bribe and were unambiguous about the fact that corruption was wrong.</p>
<p>From the survey results it’s clear that corruption has been normalised in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Bribery is viewed simply as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Its-Our-Turn-Eat-Whistle-Blower/dp/0061346594">“eating”</a> and isn’t seen as an ethical aberration. </p>
<h2>How society affects attitudes</h2>
<p>The view of young Rwandans is clearly affected by what they experience on a day to day basis. For example, there were <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/rwanda-fires-200-police-officers-accused-of-corruption-20170206">reports</a> of policemen accused of corruption being fired in 2017 while reports of civilians accused of bribing policemen arrested are not uncommon. In addition, the Ombudsman <a href="http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/rwanda/News/Rwanda-names-corruption-offenders/1433218-3935184-fcmd05z/index.html">regularly publishes</a> the list of individuals convicted of corruption related offences.</p>
<p>It is possible therefore that young Rwandans engage in a cost benefit analysis. This could inform the ultimate decision about taking or giving a bribe or a belief that there was nothing wrong with corruption.</p>
<p>Rwanda’s example offers hope. It demonstrates the importance strong leadership and an unequivocal commitment to integrity and public accountability in shaping the attitudes and perceptions of youth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Awiti is the Director of the East Africa Institute of Aga Khan University and has received funding from IDRC, Aga Khan Foundation and Ford Foundation</span></em></p>Some young East Africans believe that there is nothing wrong with corruption – except in Rwanda.Alex Awiti, Director, East African Institute, Ecosystems Ecologist and sustainable development, Aga Khan University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932082018-03-12T14:39:38Z2018-03-12T14:39:38ZWhy UNESCO’s ‘nature based solutions’ to water problems won’t work in Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209893/original/file-20180312-30989-1ky5ezb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A fisherman at work in the White Nile. Half the river’s flow is lost to evaporation from the Sudd swamps, a large wetland.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/1196025816/in/photolist-2PFWNL-89j8sn-CXp24-8gzcQe-qAQLAj-gTNmJF-ggyykG-sHGSUA-sYZDv-aeXnYu-a17Vnm-gTMoMw-jzh4Dn-aeUFzZ-tEqCrh-Thqnu1-aeE1EQ-pYzZLu-5xfaTE-ggyPkT-bpTZV7-op5C9y-pZ8YqL-CeZ5a-qAXWSD-a81h8U-aTTvJR-FA1N7-aekVnn-ffkV64-22i1gJT-5uGXFE-fDJG5b-qr6heu-YWMuYd-i4Vi3a-qzmNDw-4zDne5-6yQyRF-am4Qwn-pWCZmB-pYnhbx-22fMfJp-sDeeE-sDgXv-F8oYyk-a8ztFb-kMnsfr-51ojop-8XFCai">Arne Hoel/World Bank/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year the United Nations releases a World Water Development Report, a document that explores potential solutions to the globe’s water problems. The <a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0026/002614/261424e.pdf">2018 report</a> focuses on “nature based solutions. The authors suggest that this approach will:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>address contemporary water management challenges across all sectors, and particularly regarding water for agriculture, sustainable cities, disaster risk reduction and improving water quality.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It would see the use of "ecosystem services” <a href="https://www.iucn.org/commissions/commission-ecosystem-management/our-work/nature-based-solutions">from the natural environment</a> to provide water supplies and water purification. For example, some of the <a href="http://ihp-hwrp.nl/index.php/working-groups/delta-management-building-with-nature/">proposals in the report</a>, with which I have been engaging since 2015, <a href="http://www.water.ncsu.edu/watershedss/info/wetlands/values.html">include</a> relying on wetlands to store and purify water rather than building dams and treatment plants. </p>
<p>Although they are attractive, these nature based solutions are not the ‘green bullet’ that will solve the world’s water problems. They can work in some places, but on the whole they face serious limitations. These include the fact that they often require lots of land and compete with farming and housing for space. </p>
<p>On top of this nature based solutions may actually be harmful. They can <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=SmeuBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">reduce the amount of water</a> available for human use and <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter06_FINAL.pdf">contribute to climate change</a>. They may even fail during extreme droughts or floods. </p>
<p>Lastly, they simply cannot respond to the pace at which developing countries are growing and the water requirements and challenges that come with this. This means that nature-based approaches will do little to meet the African continent’s needs. </p>
<h2>Lessons from Cape Town</h2>
<p>Cape Town’s ongoing water crisis illustrates the problems. The South African city has tried “green” water management options; these have not averted the current crisis.</p>
<p>Take the “Working for Water” programme. Established as a national Public Works Programme in 1995 its aim was to <a href="https://m.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Local/Kouga-Express/projects-aim-to-increase-run-off-water-to-dams-20170517">make more water available</a> by cutting alien trees, which are said to consume a great deal of water. Hundreds of millions of rand have been spent around Cape Town as part of this programme. It’s created tens of thousands of short term public works jobs – but provided no relief from the drought.</p>
<p>Another solution that is being implemented is to reuse some of the wastewater the city currently dumps into the sea. This has to be carefully purified. One way to do this would be to use natural purification in large sewage treatment ponds. But land is scarce and there is not nearly enough open space available. Instead, conventional mechanical treatment infrastructure will be needed. </p>
<h2>Value in some contexts</h2>
<p>This is not to say that nature based solutions have no value – in the right context. </p>
<p>For instance, it makes sense to recharge the groundwater on which many communities depend if there is an opportunity to do so. This approach is being proposed in the report in place of new dams. In the US some states that have large “aquifers” do this regularly. They effectively manage underground storage in <a href="http://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/groundwater-banking">aquifers as a dam</a>, pumping water in when they have surplus and extracting it again when they need it.</p>
<p>In Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, the local aquifer whose springs attracted German colonial settlers is now being used to <a href="https://economist.com.na/15772/headlines/windhoek-plans-to-tap-into-aquifer/">provide additional storage</a> to help the city to survive during its frequent droughts. </p>
<p>But, as the Windhoek case shows, even supposedly natural solutions need an infrastructure of pumps, pipelines, recharge wells and reservoirs. They also require large areas of the city to remain undeveloped so that the underground water is not polluted by people living above it.</p>
<p>So these “natural” methods remain an attractive option for smaller towns; the challenge for larger cities is often their extensive land requirements. </p>
<p>Proponents of nature-based approaches also often fail to recognise their down-sides. Sustainable urban drainage, for instance, uses grassy areas and permeable pavements to slow the flow of storm water and allow it to soak into the soil. While some may recharge groundwater, much is lost to evaporation and so reduces the flow of water into rivers and dams. </p>
<p>In South Africa, <a href="http://www.assaf.co.za/uploads/Schulze%20ASSAf%20State%20of%20Water.pdf">only around 8%</a> of rainfall actually reaches rivers and dams. Reducing that flow will actually reduce the amount of water available for use and increase water scarcity.</p>
<p>Similarly, while proponents of nature based solutions make much of the ability of wetlands to store water and release a small and steady flow after a flood, they also lose large quantities of water through evaporation. 94% of the Okavango River, southern Africa’s third largest, is <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=SmeuBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">lost to evaporation</a> in this way from Botswana’s Okavango swamps, as is half of the flow of the White Nile from the Sudd swamps of Southern Sudan. </p>
<p>Wetlands also aggravate the problems of climate change and accelerate global warming. They are the largest single emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas which is driving global warming. More methane is generated by wetlands than from all human sources – and this is <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter06_FINAL.pdf">expected to increase</a> as the earth warms.</p>
<h2>Large challenges</h2>
<p>The real problem is that the nature based approaches originated in the context of Europe and North America. These regions have already built many of the infrastructure systems they need, from dams and pipe networks to wastewater treatment works. They do not have Africa’s huge infrastructure deficit.</p>
<p>Rich country populations are static. With their basic needs now met, they seek to improve the quality of their environment. But developing countries face a completely different kind of challenge. As an example, by 2050 sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population is expected to increase by 720 million people while Europe’s will <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/publications/files/wup2014-highlights.pdf">grow by just 36 million</a>.</p>
<p>So, while some nature-based approaches may be relevant, the reality is that they will make only a small contribution to the large challenges that the developing world must address.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Muller received research support from UN-Water and the World Water Assessment Programme between 2005 and 2015. In addition to his academic affiliation, he currently works with professional engineering associations, advises water sector institutions on water policy related matters and is a member of the Climate Bonds Initiative Technical Working Group on hydropower.</span></em></p>Nature based approaches to solving water problems originated in Europe and don’t take into account Africa’s huge infrastructure deficit.Mike Muller, Visiting Adjunct Professor, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/921262018-03-11T09:02:35Z2018-03-11T09:02:35ZSurvey shows Zuma and ANC’s mutual dance to the bottom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207126/original/file-20180220-116365-livi1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former South African President Jacob Zuma sings at the ANC National Conference in December. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Opinion polls in South Africa have clearly shown the sharp decline in citizens’ approval of Jacob Zuma’s performance as president over the past three years. What has been less clear is the impact on the governing African National Congress (ANC). He was also the president of the ANC, until his term ended in December and he was <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anc-has-a-new-leader-but-south-africa-remains-on-a-political-precipice-89248">replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa</a>. </p>
<p>For many years, Zuma was considered a <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-03-18-parliament-diary-jacob-zuma-the-teflon-president/#.Wowjk4NubIU">“Teflon” president</a>. He seemed to maintain public support even in the face of controversial decisions and scandals because of his personal appeal as an affable populist. Several surveys placed his <a href="http://afrobarometer.org/publications/ad66-south-africans-have-lost-confidence-zuma-believe-he-ignores-parliament-and-law">approval ratings in the 60%</a> <a href="https://upjournals.co.za/index.php/Politeia/article/view/3247">to 70%</a>
range throughout his first term in office. Once that image was finally pierced, one might have logically expected his downfall to be equally personal, and not take the party down with him.</p>
<p>But new results from the <a href="http://citizensurveys.com/sa-citizens-survey/">December 2017 South African Citizen Survey</a> demonstrate just the opposite. Asking a widely used measure of party support called partisan identification, a strong predictor of both voter turnout and vote choice, only 32% of those surveyed said they “felt close” to the ANC. This is the worst result recorded in the past 17 years, and statistically tied as the lowest level since 1994.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209885/original/file-20180312-30975-7u4l97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209885/original/file-20180312-30975-7u4l97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209885/original/file-20180312-30975-7u4l97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209885/original/file-20180312-30975-7u4l97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209885/original/file-20180312-30975-7u4l97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209885/original/file-20180312-30975-7u4l97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209885/original/file-20180312-30975-7u4l97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">ANC Identification.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Zuma, it seems, pulled the ANC down with him. But this question is not asked very frequently by South African polling organisations. Fortunately, it’s possible to turn to an alternative indicator to get a more fine grained take on recent trends in ANC support. </p>
<p>The South African Citizen Survey also asks respondents to rate how much they “like or dislike” each major political party on a scale of 0 to 10. In mid-2015, 61% of South Africans held a positive view of the ANC. Two and a half years later, only 43% feel this way. More importantly, the proportion who give the ANC a higher score than any other party has shrunk from over one half of the electorate in mid-2015 (55%), to just over one third (37%) in the most recent survey as shown below.</p>
<h2>Presiding over electoral decline</h2>
<p>To be sure, it was already clear from the ANC’s loss of seats in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures in the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2014-05-11-the-partys-over-anc-sees-decline-in-support">2009 and 2014 national elections</a> that Zuma was presiding over an electoral decline, however small. This should have become even clearer in 2016, when large numbers of ANC members lost their seats as municipal councillors, positions in executive councils, and mayorships of major metropolitan councils.</p>
<p>Yet many of these losses could have been pinned to the poor performance of the post-2008 economy. Indeed, ever since 1994, the degree of economic optimism (as measured by the proportion of South Africans who expect the economy to improve in the next year) has been a strong predictor of popular support for the ANC.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209886/original/file-20180312-30983-13v78gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209886/original/file-20180312-30983-13v78gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209886/original/file-20180312-30983-13v78gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209886/original/file-20180312-30983-13v78gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209886/original/file-20180312-30983-13v78gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209886/original/file-20180312-30983-13v78gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209886/original/file-20180312-30983-13v78gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the evidence suggests that over the past year, voter support for the ANC became tied to their views of Jacob Zuma, rather than the economy. While Zuma’s popularity has fallen steadily since at least the end of 2015, the biggest single drop took place in April 2017 when his support levels plummeted by 12 percentage points on the heels of the public firestorm that followed the <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2017/03/31/zuma-says-reshuffled-cabinet-to-improve-efficiency-and-effectiveness">March cabinet re-shuffle</a> and sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. </p>
<p>Yet, even with the resultant damage to the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-30/south-africa-s-rand-extends-slump-as-zuma-fires-finance-minister">currency and the markets</a>, South Africans began to sense an economic turnaround. By year’s end, 48% expected the economy to get better in the next 12 months, and 59% expected their household living conditions to improve. But peoples’ evaluations of Zuma’s job performance continued to plummet (to just 22%), and the public image of the ANC remained at historically low levels.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209887/original/file-20180312-30969-1w1vujz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209887/original/file-20180312-30969-1w1vujz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209887/original/file-20180312-30969-1w1vujz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209887/original/file-20180312-30969-1w1vujz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209887/original/file-20180312-30969-1w1vujz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209887/original/file-20180312-30969-1w1vujz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209887/original/file-20180312-30969-1w1vujz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">ANC Zuma.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thus, voters finally turned on Zuma, but only after a long string of <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2018/02/15/south-africa-s-divisive-president-zuma-s-many-scandals">personal scandals</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ramaphosa-must-fuse-fixing-broken-institutions-and-economic-policy-92017">bad political decisions</a>, and public outrage over the use of public money on his private homestead <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/Public%20Protector's%20Report%20on%20Nkandla_a.pdf">Nkandla</a>, the <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/FULL-TEXT-Statement-by-Public-Protector-on-Nkandla-Report-20140319">“capture”</a> of key state institutions by Gupta-friendly ministers and directors, and cabinet reshuffles. </p>
<p>Yet the ANC continued to shield him from the courts, the <a href="https://www.enca.com/south-africa/motshekga-calls-madonselas-powers-be-amended">Public Protector</a>, and from successive <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-confidence-vote-a-victory-for-zuma-but-a-defeat-for-the-anc-82244">votes of no confidence</a> in parliament. Indeed, the party came very close to electing his <a href="https://www.enca.com/south-africa/president-publicly-endorses-nkosazana-dlamini-zuma-for-anc-leader">hand-chosen successor</a>, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as its <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/markets/2017-12-19-ramaphosa-rally-stumbles-on-narrow-victory/">new leader</a> and presumptive national president.</p>
<p>But at some point in the past few months, a sufficient number of party members finally seemed to grasp the fact that Zuma’s continued presence threatened the electoral interests of the party as well as their own political futures, particularly those who appeared downwind on the party list. But it took them a very long time to reach this conclusion, and the party has paid dearly in terms of its connection with the electorate.</p>
<p>Zuma dragged the ANC down with him. Yet many might justifiably argue that it has been a mutual waltz to the bottom: while his behaviour and decisions damaged his own image, the ANC’s tolerance of his sins of governance has tarnished theirs.</p>
<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa therefore faces a double challenge. Not only must he reestablish a positive connection between the presidency and the people, but he must also transform the battered image of the ANC.</p>
<p><strong>Tables updated 12 March 2018</strong></p>
<p><em>The South African Citizens Survey is based on face-to-face interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,300 respondents a month. Results are reported quarterly on a total of 3,900 respondents, which produces results with a margin of error margin of error of ±1.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Sampling sites are chosen at random across all provinces, and metro, urban and rural areas, with probability proportionate to population size, based on the latest StatsSA estimates of the population aged 18 and older. Interviews are conducted in English, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sesotho, Sepedi, and Setswana. Weights are applied to ensure the sample represents the most recent national population with respect to province, race, gender, age and area type.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Mattes is Professor of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, Honorary Professor at the Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa at the University of Cape Town, co-founder and Senior Adviser to Afrobarometer, and has previously worked as a consultant to Citizen Surveys. He receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation, </span></em></p>Former South African President Jacob Zuma’s bad behaviour damaged his image and the ANC’s.Robert Mattes, Professor in the Department of Political Studies, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/804412018-03-11T09:02:25Z2018-03-11T09:02:25ZHow corporate social responsibility projects can be derailed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208668/original/file-20180302-65516-j8xgca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big companies operating in developing countries often use corporate social responsibility initiatives to position themselves as development agents and friends of the host communities.</p>
<p>But in places like South Africa – and within the mining sector in particular – initiatives aren’t achieving the objectives they were designed to meet. Animosity between corporations and hosting communities persists. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/marikana-massacre-16-august-2012">Marikana massacre</a> is a case in point. A labour dispute between platinum mining company, Lonmin, and its workers, spiralled out of control, resulting in the death of 34 miners after police opened fire on a demonstration. The events at Marikana show how animosities continue to exist, and the damage they can cause.</p>
<p>One of the factors that’s emerged in the intervening four years is that there were major gaps in Lonmin’s corporate social responsibility programme. An <a href="https://www.sahrc.org.za/home/21/files/marikana-report-1.pdf">analysis</a> of the Marikana events show that the company <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-09-04-groundup-marikana-lonmins-dodgy-housing-record/#.WplDNGpubIU">failed</a> dismally to meet its housing plans for workers. This left a significant portion of the workforce living in dehumanising conditions.</p>
<p>The Lonmin case illustrates two key areas of failure that are common in approaches taken companies. These are a failure to appreciate the cultural sensitivities of host communities and poor communication.</p>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15228916.2016.1219174">paper</a> we review various approaches taken by companies. The paper uses key dimensions of corporate social responsibility – moral, ethical, economic, cultural and consultative and legal. The aim was to identify which the weakest links in the strategies pursued by big corporates.</p>
<p>The research could contribute to a theoretical framework that can be used to develop negotiated and mutually acceptable outcomes. This could potentially reduce the friction and tension that are often present when corporate social responsibility projects are implemented. </p>
<h2>Communication is key</h2>
<p>Why do companies engage in corporate social responsibility projects? The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262901183_Corporate_Citizenship_in_South_Africa">main reason</a> is a growing realisation that they have a compelling moral, ethical and legal obligation to protect their operating environment as well as stakeholders. They’re also motivated by strategic and economic imperatives.</p>
<p>Our study confirms two key factors. The first is that communication plays a huge role in corporate social responsibility projects. The second is that many have been derailed by uninformed assumptions about the needs and priorities of host communities. </p>
<p>Adopting a consultative decision making approach is essential. If initiatives are viewed as being community oriented, then it makes sense to involve the intended beneficiaries – both in initiation and implementation.</p>
<p>Our study encountered a case where a company encouraged farmers in the community to form themselves into a cooperative society. The company was collaborating with a university faculty of agriculture to train cooperative farmers. The training focused on the use of modern technology and the cultivation of high yielding crops. The idea was that the company would then purchase the crops at prevailing market prices.</p>
<p>The initiative generated a reasonable amount of employment and sustainable income for the community members. But community leaders reacted with hostility. They dismissed the project because they argued that it was fraught with nepotism and favouritism. They also saw it as an attempt to divide and rule. The project, they said, was devised</p>
<blockquote>
<p>to cause confusion amongst our people so that we do not speak with one voice against the operations of the company.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They charged that distributors were selectively appointed by the company without consultation. They added that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Most of the distributors are relatives or extended family members of a major shareholder of the company, who is a native of our neighbouring village.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The cooperative project became moribund.</p>
<p>The community leaders’ reaction points to poor communication and consultation. A participatory decision making approach would have resolved the community’s allegations and perceptions. </p>
<h2>Cultural sensitivities</h2>
<p>Our study also shows that corporations should consider cultural and traditional values when initiating projects. Not doing so could prove expensive.</p>
<p>Cultural and property rights practices differ from one jurisdiction to the other. In most African societies, land is central to people’s existence and identity. Cultural beliefs and traditional practices are often tied to the land.</p>
<p>People’s homes, and the land around them, are considered to be a heritage from ones ancestors and must therefore be preserved and sanctified through rituals. These cultural beliefs and practices don’t always make business sense to multinationals. They, perhaps even unconsciously, underestimate the significance attached to ancestral lands.</p>
<p>Land is sometimes appropriated by government, while businesses are required to pay compensation and relocate people. From our interviews, it was inferred that a company does not see anything untoward in acquiring graveyards and compensating families to exhume and re-bury their ancestors. </p>
<p>But communities consider this to be taboo and a process that could invoke the wrath of their ancestors. </p>
<p>It’s therefore imperative for corporations – particularly multinationals – to foster cultural understanding with local communities. </p>
<h2>Your heading here</h2>
<p>Overall, we found that companies were willing to embrace corporate social responsibility. This was often expressed in their vision and mission statements and through considerable monetary allocations towards corporate social responsibility initiatives. But many fail due to cultural insensitivity and misplaced communication strategies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olorunjuwon Samuel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Corporates are willing to embrace corporate social responsibility initiatives. But many fail due to cultural insensitivity and misplaced communication strategies.Olorunjuwon Samuel, Associate Professor, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.