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.
Shutterstock
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.
Supplied
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?
Twentieth-century political thinker and fighter against colonialism and imperialism, Frantz Fanon, left an indelible mark on history.
Tony Webster/Flickr
Leo Zeilig, School of Advanced Study, University of London
For the revolutionary Frantz Fanon it was not enough to celebrate the achievements of decolonisation. It was necessary to educate, to strain at the limits of national freedom and to provoke debate.
There are very few spaces in which girls can discuss menstruation or ask questions about it.
Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
Menstruation is a fact of life – but in many parts of Africa, it’s something that young women dread. A South African research group is working to change this.
Mobile phones have many benefits. But they can also interrupt classes and distract pupils.
KODAKovic/Shutterstock.com
Researchers and policymakers need to talk to each other. If they don’t, important research will merely gather dust and policies might do more harm than good.
So much more can be achieved if African researchers work together.
EPA/DANIEL IRUNGU
There are a number of stumbling blocks to intra African collaboration. These must be addressed to ensure that research is not duplicated and that findings are shared.
Burkina Faso is among the African countries that have experienced popular protests in recent years.
Ahmed Yempabou/EPA
Grassroots protesters are questioning the logic of export-led ‘growth’ and renewed fiscal austerity pushed through the ‘Africa rising’ narrative. They want policies that meet their basic needs.
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