South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, had to battle poor growth and falling revenue in preparing the 2016 medium term budget. How did he do?
Thousands of students marched to parliament where South Africa’s finance minister presented his mid-term budget.
EPA/Nic Bothma
Finance minister Pravin Gordhan announced that government expenditure on higher education and specifically universities will be the fastest growing expenditure items on the budget.
Omar al-Bashir (centre, blue suit) at the infamous 2015 African Union summit in Johannesburg.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Arguably Africa’s most powerful diplomatic player, South Africa is now backing out of the world’s most important mechanism for bringing war criminals to justice.
Emerging retail players struggle to grow.
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The South African government’s decision to withdraw from the ICC should not be seen in isolation. The African Union has called on its member states to withdraw from the court.
South Africa isn’t the “rainbow nation” some claim it to be.
Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
Closer examination of criminal charges brought against South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, suggest that they are weak in law and serve a political agenda.
Ntombithini Ndwandwe, an agroecology farmer displaying her diversity of traditional seeds in Zimele, KwaZulu-Natal.
Rachel Wynberg
Since 2000, the growth of the commercial seed market has almost tripled. More than 63% of the world’s commercial seed is now owned by six corporations.
Challenging times for some BRICS countries.
Reuters
BRICS goes into its eighth summit with lots of hurdles. Sanusha Naidu consideres its future prospects.
South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan before delivering his 2016 budget address to parliament in February. Will he deliver another?
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
It is particularly dangerous to be an elderly person in Tanzania’s rural areas and villages. Legislation exists to protect this group, but it’s not being translated into reality.
For women studying and working in Eurocentric institutions, wearing natural hair can be a symbol of resistance.
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Chelsea Johnson, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Natural hair has become a political rallying point for women across the African diaspora. For these women, wearing natural hair is way to resist Eurocentric norms and “post-racial” political thought.
Wealth inequality is a bigger challenge than income inequality in South Africa.
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Economic models suggest that South Africa’s GDP would fall, inequality would deepen and unemployment would rise if university graduates don’t enter the labour market in 2017.
Sol Plaatje never stopped learning, nor teaching.
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With no sign of resolution in the near future the collapse of multilateral trade negotiations, tagged as the Doha round, risks breeding a major crisis.
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