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As the world searches for environmental success stories, the Waterberg stands out because of its scale and potential to be a benchmark for modern conservation initiatives. The 1 600 000-acre Waterberg plateau northwest of Gauteng was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2001. Pasture and farmland, once suffering from poor soil and overgrazing, is increasingly […]

This morning, the ITI board was extremely saddened by the news of the demise of our colleague, friend, and mentor, Ebrahim (Ebie) Ebrahim. Over the past few months, his illness made us aware of his declining heath, but his passing still came as a shock. Ebie, ITI was privileged to have shared you with your […]

“If people take hands, they cannot point a finger.” These were some of the words by Jan Oosthuizen, Convenor of the Clanwilliam Development Partnership, in an interview with ITI about the recent activities undertaken by the partnership. The Clanwilliam Development Partnership is a non-partisan cross-sectoral platform, created to mobilise joint action around development projects in […]

Dr Johan van Zyl, the initiator of the Public-Private Growth Initiative (PPGI), an ITI project focussing on growth and investment in the South African economy, sadly passed away on Friday, 30 July, at the age of 63. During the last three years his leadership in the PPGI project was visionary and dynamic. Johan at the time of his death was […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYOn 1 February 2021, Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, launched a coup, unseating the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government, alleging fraud in November 2020 elections that saw the NLD defeat the military-backed party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). In reality though it seems that a second NLD term, with no […]

Despite the huge problems of the last few months and South Africa’s inherent vulnerabilities, the country has so far been spared an Arab Spring-type popular uprising. Covid-19, economic decline and the strife within the ruling party have not led to the kind of mass protests that North Africa saw a decade ago.This is partly due […]

The late Frederik van Zyl Slabbert is famous for saying that he achieved more in 18 months dealing with ‘real issues’ in local government than in 12 years in Parliament. In his new book about the former opposition leader, Slabbert: Man on a Mission, writer Albert Grundlingh describes Slabbert’s experience as head of the Central […]

Due to Covid-19, as well as the mismanagement and stagnation that were present well before the pandemic, South Africa has shed millions of jobs. Poverty has increased dramatically and there is a clear failure of leadership at various levels – in politics, business and civil society. Can this crisis be a catalyst for change? Could […]

In the past year an unprecedented number of high-profile elections were held in Africa. Many of them, like those in Burundi, Tanzania, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, were marred by violence and the electoral processes were considered far from credible.   In Burundi in May this year, the ruling party’s Evariste Ndayishimiye won an election marked by […]

The stability of the South African (SA) State is being affected by an approach that was taken to transform the apartheid state into a democracy. There was a broad consensus that deployment informed by political considerations would be part of the endeavour to reform the state. This approach has, however, been interpreted as though it […]