South African Institute of International Affairs
This Youth Month let’s reimagine our future
17th June 2021 Every year on 16 June, South Africa celebrates Youth Day, honouring the student and youth uprisings that profoundly changed the socio-political... →
Can Kinshasa’s changing relations mark a new chapter for eastern DRC?
11th June 2021 Since President Tshisekedi took office in 2019, the Congo’s relations with key neighbours have changed significantly. In the last few weeks,... →
G7 summit: SA can help strengthen climate diplomacy
9th June 2021 South Africa could be part of a global collective strategy to retire coal within developing economies. SA, together with India, South Korea and... →
Young People Grapple with Governance This Africa Day
26th May 2021 Every year on 25 May, Africans commemorate the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. As the OAU transformed itself into the... →
Independent candidates can reignite youth participation
7th May 2021 The month of April marked 27 years since South Africa's first democratic national elections on 27 April 1994. This was the genesis of the country's... →
Your Voice, Your Planet, Your Future
23rd April 2021 This Earth Day, let’s get real! The planet is facing a climate crisis and the prosperity of future generations is at risk. We need to take urgent... →
South Africa has failed to champion human rights in the world. But that’s changing
23rd April 2021 The story of democratic South Africa and its approach to human rights in the rest of the world is a tale of woe. For two-and-a-half decades, its... →
Botswana civil society’s submission to the APRM
16th April 2021 The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was introduced in 2003, as a mutually agreed instrument to monitor and promote governance to which African... →
Powering a green hydrogen economy workforce: What South Africa needs to do now
31st March 2021 Moving rapidly towards a green hydrogen economy would help South Africa secure its domestic energy supply and drive economic growth through the... →
Bracing for the second wave
24th March 2021 The synchronised, sudden stop in the global economy, together with radically reduced income sources fundamental to African countries (remittances,... →
Cameroon’s Authoritarianism Fuels its Anglophone Separatist War
17th March 2021 Cameroon is dealing with a deadly though insufficiently reported civil war in its two English-speaking (minority) regions of the North-West and... →
Zimbabwe Shows Potential to Lead e-Mobility Transition
8th March 2021 The adverse effects of the climate emergency mean that it is critical for the world to accelerate the transition to low carbon technologies to... →
The Road to a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: Considering African Priorities
3rd March 2021 The commemoration of World Wildlife Day on 3 March this year has added significance as global stakeholders work towards a new set of targets to... →
Electric vehicle battery manufacturing: Why SADC needs to act now
16th February 2021 As we try to navigate the disruption that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused to our lives and livelihoods, I listen to people talk about what they... →
US Capitol Breach Was a Shot Heard Round the World
20th January 2021 In this Council of Councils global perspectives roundup, members of five leading think tanks reflect on the impact of the January 6 insurrection at... →
How Chinese investment is contributing to economic transformation across Africa
9th December 2020 Every day, dozens of media pieces and articles discuss China’s presence in Africa. The focus is usually on China’s strategic interests, responses... →
Red lights are flashing over Russian dealings with Mozambique and Zimbabwe
7th December 2020 Russia is clearly keen to boost its presence in Africa. “Africa is one of the priorities of Russian foreign policy,” declared Russian deputy... →
Lives or livelihoods
2nd December 2020 The coronavirus crisis poses new and unprecedented challenges for every country, in particular developing nations. Our Chief Executive Elizabeth... →
Tshisekedi and Kabila fall out
2nd December 2020 Two-and-a-half years after striking a political deal with his erstwhile political enemy that saw him being handed the presidency of the Democratic... →
G20 and development
19th November 2020 Covid-19 has turned everything upside down. The global lockdowns, the stresses on weak health systems, the absence of fiscal space and social... →
Rebuilding Trust, Reliability, and Predictability
13th November 2020 Most parts of the world sighed in relief when the outcome of the US presidential election was announced—not only because the wait had been long,... →
Is BRICS past its sell-by date?
1st October 2020 The demise of the BRICS based on its apparent incoherence has long been predicted by pundits. But as Mark Twain observed about reports of his death... →
Does Egypt need to go nuclear?
1st October 2020 Egypt's venture into nuclear power has been planned from the top down, with environmental groups and rights organisations expressing reservations,... →
China holds all the cards as pandemic pushes African countries to default on loans
1st October 2020 Governments on the continent may be forced to cede control of key assets as Beijing swops debt for equity. Covid-19 is acting as a kind of X-ray,... →
How to make the UN relevant again: Pursue a fresh approach to climate change
23rd September 2020 As the United Nations celebrates 75 years of championing safety and security, social welfare, refugee rights, and more, it risks seeing all this... →
Africa’s gathering debt storm
4th September 2020 Without rapid and vastly increased external help to weather the Covid-19 storm and ease their debt-service burden, many African economies could... →
Corruption hampers the development of South Africa’s youth
31st August 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has once again exposed the rife corruption and disregard for governance, accountability and transparency by senior... →
It is very much in SA’s interest to ‘interfere’ in Zimbabwe
11th August 2020 The fate of the neighbouring state has a profound influence on the economy of the entire region. For about 20 years SA has watched, rarely exerted... →
Nuclear developments in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic
7th August 2020 Africa’s response to COVID-19 has been boosted by nuclear-derived technology innovations and their peaceful application in the health and food... →
Not much give from China in its relationship with Africa
30th June 2020 Despite a warm African response to the recent ‘Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against Covid-19’, not much new came out of the... →
DRC president’s chief of staff convicted of corruption and embezzlement
25th June 2020 Congolese president Felix Tshisekedi’s chief of staff, Vital Kamerhe, was once a close ally of Joseph Kabila, leading his election campaign in... →
Covid-19 and the politics of the year of the nurse
4th June 2020 When the World Health Organisation (WHO) last year named 2020 the ‘International Year of the Nurse and Midwife’, there was no way of knowing that... →
Burundi: Can newly-elected President Ndayishimiye deliver change?
4th June 2020 On 20 May, as most of the world was preoccupied with Covid-19, Burundi quietly held its fourth general elections since the end of the civil war in... →
Hong Kong and China’s National People’s Congress: The danger of a new cold war
27th May 2020 As China gears up to sink its claws deeper into Hong Kong, the world weighs up how best to respond. The pro-democracy movement also has some hard... →
The pandemic creates ideal conditions for the rise of populism
27th May 2020 Prior to the coronavirus pandemic the world’s political climate was darkening. Rising and deepening levels of authoritarianism, protectionism,... →
Africa Day: recalibrating the continent’s future
26th May 2020 Fifty-seven years ago today, the Organisation of Africa Unity was born. Founded by 32 states, its quest was to bring about freedom and unity on the... →
Cybercrime and COVID-19: A concern for financial stability during the pandemic
18th May 2020 The largest continent in the world today is no longer a physical geographical location but a virtual one. Cyberspace has redefined how people,... →
COVID-19: Implications for the ‘digital divide’ in Africa
18th May 2020 This article is part of the ‘ COVID-19 and Innovation in Africa’ series, produced by the Africa Portal, Wits University and the African Centre for... →
Can the ‘super year for nature’ be salvaged? Reflecting on Earth Day 2020
22nd April 2020 The year 2020 was billed as a ‘Super Year for Nature’ – a year of important global negotiations on the future of biodiversity, oceans governance... →
Renewed urgency to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area: How can Africa prepare now?
22nd April 2020 In recent weeks, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on the world. While there is uncertainty about how long this pandemic will disrupt... →
Are states ready to commit to providing global public goods?
15th April 2020 Covid-19 is the crisis no one expected to happen in our generation despite frequent speculation about the potential impact of the recurrence of the... →
