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 […]
Myanmar: Baseline Study
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 […]
Visionary leadership needed in South Africa to reduce inequality
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 […]
Can local government be fixed by seeing the problem differently?
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 […]
Can a new national dialogue save South Africa?
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 […]
Restoring faith in democratic processes will be a priority for Africa in 2021
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 […]
Building a capable State – 31 August 2020 Dialogue Discussion
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 […]