Seasons, stars, settler colonialism: the nations of the south – Australia, Argentina and South Africa – have much in common. And the 2003 Nobel laureate for literature, JM Coetzee, is helping reframe Australian writing within this southern context.
Relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq protest outside Sir John Chilcot’s press conference.
EPA/Sean Dempsey
Compared with other attempts to mend deep wounds after wars and conflicts, the Chilcot Report falls depressingly short.
Idyllic Mauritius is the only African country ranked in the favourable category of ‘more stable’ in the latest survey on state fragility.
Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi
The Fragile States Index leaves more questions than it answers. Like similar global surveys, its credibility hinges on reliable data. But how sound are its statistics and their interpretation?
Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius speaks with his legal team ahead of his sentence hearing at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa.
Reuters/Masi Losi/Pool
Disgraced Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius has been sentenced to six years in prison for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. You can find a selection of articles The Conversation has…
Professor Chabani Manganyi reflects on his time working as a black psychologist in the heart of the apartheid era.
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In the heart of South Africa’s apartheid era, Professor Chabani Manganyi was among a handful of black psychologists offering expert testimony in the country’s courts.
A proposed new law is set to allow surrogate parents in South Africa to also take leave to care for their babies.
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South African law requires surrogate mothers to hand infants to their legal parents without undue delay. But it doesn’t provide leave for these parents to care for their infants. That is set to change.
South Africa’s response to the country’s economic woes has amounted to little more than band-aid treatment. Government must do more to set the economy on a solid growth path.
How countries manage their currencies is now more critical than ever. Nigeria has followed in the footsteps of South Africa by opting for a free-floating exchange rate regime.
South African President Jacob Zuma arrives at a European Union-South Africa summit in 2012.
Reuters/Yves Herman
It’s unclear what South Africa’s attitude will be to negotiating new deals with the UK and the EU. In the past seven years it has lost its appetite for trade deals, particularly with the developed world.
In-depth surveys allow governments to drill their understanding down to street level.
Image courtesy GCRO/Clive Hassall
Without data, people don’t know what to believe or whom to trust. Empirical, thorough data collected by academics can help to fill important governance gaps.
Markets plunged after the UK voted to exit the EU. Africa’s trade relations with both the EU and UK will be affected by the decision.
Reuters/Kevin Coombs
A radical tightening of exchange controls against corporations and wealthy individuals offers a short-term solution to South Africa’s balance of payments crisis.
People queue to apply for social grants in Cape Town, South Africa.
Nic Bothma/EPA
What seems to be a simple question of banks’ responsibilities is actually a major issue playing out where social security, banking, property, criminal and constitutional law intersect.
Parliamentary budget offices are considered international best practice – they are intended to bring more honesty to the budget process.
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The scandal at Uganda’s Parliamentary Budget Office shows that figuring out the proper roles, functions, internal controls, and capacities is more pressing than ever.
The price of voice communication has come down in South Africa. But poor regulation and a lack of competition means that the country still has some way to go to reduce the cost of communication.
A Permo-Triassic boundary site near Bethulie in South Africa’s Free State province.
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How did survivors of the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction adapt to their new, harsh environment? And why is that knowledge so important for modern species?
The retirement of Dikgang Moseneke, one of South Africa’s eminent judges and the Constitutional Court’s deputy chief justice, is a moment to reflect on the court’s place in society and his legacy.
BRICS leaders at a meeting ahead of the G20 summit in Turkey in 2015.
REUTERS/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin
The BRICS bank is positioning itself to play a significant role in those areas in which the international financial institutions are seen to have failed.
South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Reuters/Mark Wessels
A senior public official has berated South Africans for rallying behind Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, calling the action unhelpful. The crisp question is: unhelpful to whom?
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand