Deploying the military can reduce violent crime (temporarily) but does not address its root causes.
Articles on State of the Nation Address
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If conditions for private investment in the transmission infrastructure are not put in place, it’s likely that loadshedding will return in 2029.
One thing is certain: there will be ongoing contestation over the path and pace of South Africa’s electricity reforms.
Support for businesses is particularly pressing during times of economic crises so that they can adapt their innovation plans.
Almost 25% of all farmland previously owned by white landowners has been restored, redistributed to black South Africans, or moved away to state ownership.
The president’s speech couldn’t cover up for the fact that the last five years have been among the most difficult for ordinary South Africans.
As the July 2021 unrest and looting graphically showed, crime and lawlessness can debilitate and destroy government efforts to facilitate and support economic growth.
Reviving the capacity of the state is also crucial to shoring up support for democracy in the long term.
Whites lived well under apartheid and it is not absurd for black leaders to want all to live in the same way.
President Ramaphosa’s emphasis on fighting crime is well placed. Most categories of violent crimes have risen dramatically over the past eight years.
President Ramaphosa’s state of the nation speech showed his preference for less contentious matters that attract praise, rather than catalytic decisions.
Ramaphosa offered five simple yet bold goals for the next ten years that cut across the social and economic structural constraints that inhibit South Africa’s potential.
It’s easy to report on access and inputs, but much more difficult to achieve educational quality and meaningful outcomes.
The majority of Kenyans appear to be happy as President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga’s pledge to “build bridges.”
A tumultuous era has ended and there’s a silver lining to the cloud that has been hanging over South Africa.
Zuma will go down in history as South Africa’s most corrupt head of government since Cecil Rhodes was prime minister of the Cape Colony.
President Jacob Zuma shouldn’t be allowed to detract from the momentum that Cyril Ramaphosa, the new president of the ruling ANC, has started to build.
The ANC should draw the lesson that South Africans are unlikely to tolerate the ongoing descent of their politics into the gutter without strident resistance - in the streets, if necessary.
There was nothing in President Zuma’s speech to suggest that he’d really listened to people’s concerns about higher education - nor to suggest that any solutions will be forthcoming.
Jacob Zuma tried to cover everything under the sun in his State of the Nation address. The speech was not pivoted on an anchor. It was a collection of inputs from various government departments.
Top contributors
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Criminologist / Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch University
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Political Scientist, University of the Western Cape
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SA UK Bilateral Research Professor in Political Theory, Wits and Cambridge, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor, University of Cape Town
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Director, Maternal and Infant Health Care Strategy Extramural Unit, SAMRC, University of Pretoria
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Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand
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Head: Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Warwick
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Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Health Sciences,, University of KwaZulu-Natal
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Chair of Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies, Adjunct Professor in the School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand
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Distinguished Research Specialist, Human Sciences Research Council
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Professor of Political Studies, University of Johannesburg
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Director of the Bureau for Economic Research, Stellenbosch University
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Associate Professor in Political Science, Stellenbosch University
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Researcher, Human Sciences Research Council