BRICS time is now
“History repeats itself” has become somewhat of a cliché. Yet the full quote, attributed to Karl Marx in his work ‘The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon’, is said to be: “history repeats itself; the first as tragedy, then as farce.” In this respect too, we…
Social entrepreneurship at the heart of Madiba’s legacy
Each year on July 18th South African citizens are joined by the world in commemorating the life of uTata Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela in what the United Nations General Assembly has declared as ‘Nelson Mandela International Day’. However, we South Africans have embraced to extend our…
What would South Africa look like if taxis were connected
Traffic across South Africa continues to be a headache and digital acceleration may just be the answer in mitigating daily congestion. Creating smart cities and digital workplaces means connecting infrastructure and digitizing transport systems, particularly in the taxi industry. Can you imagine what South Africa…
Can South Africa shape BRICS’ normative agenda in Africa?
As South Africa prepares to host the 10th summit of BRICS from 25-27 July for the second time, its role since joining the grouping in 2011 invites reflection. It has often been remarked that South Africa’s aggressive pursuit of membership in BRICS has not been…
Citizens shouldn’t wait for things to become dire in municipalities
Recent media reports document how communities have been denied their service delivery entitlements through the actions of a presumably corrupt and inept council. In Koster, it was reported that the mayor and ten councillors fled a wrathful and disgruntled community. The community, living in conditions…
The Contested Renaming of South African Airports
The Department of Transport and the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) have been holding public meetings over changing the airport’s name. The incident that was witnessed on 5 June 2018 at the Cape Town International Airport, when tempers flared between the members of the Economic…
Maybe a new set of Values are required
Some love Einstein’s definition of madness, “doing what one has always done, believing the outcome will be different”. So often one agrees with such a simple but insightful wisdom but not realise its wider application. Take, for example, our current challenge about water security in…
There’s something rotten in Cape Town
There’s a water crisis, the City of Cape Town’s management, by its own admission, is in disarray, mired in “instability”, evictions of poor, black families already living in tenuous circumstances continue despite evidence showing occupation and violent protests and aftershock flare-ups have continued in the…
Still walled in by race and class
DESPITE claims that it is the best-run city in South Africa and that it is relatively corruption-free, all is not well in Cape Town. In many ways, it is a sick city…. And it is precisely because of its natural beauty and its high standard…
Without Radical Socio-Economic Transformation, our legacies will remain hollow
Winnie Mandela, whose life we have been remembering and celebrating in the past weeks, dedicated her life to the downtrodden and marginalised of our society. When she met Nelson Mandela, this young woman, in her early twenties, was working as a social worker at what…
Prioritising and understanding land reform
THE prioritisation of land reform presents an historic opportunity for civil society and state to right past wrongs and build a more inclusive economy, experts told a recent public meeting in Cape Town. But the issue can also sow division and undermine the agrarian economy,…
Losing ground is an EmotioNolotov Cocktail
Over the past decade my experience with “squatters” has turned my head around. I have been converted from one who championed “Jubilee” – the biblical return of land to its owners – into a believer in the primacy of non-racialism. I have concluded that land-grabs…
Mangena’s Toons
