Latest Opinions
Despite the hazards, Ghana’s illicit waste trade is booming
By: ISS, Institute for Security Studies 7th February 2024 Illicit waste trafficking generates around US$10-billion to US$12-billion worldwide every year, according to the Financial Action Task Force. Ghana... →
South Africa needs to manage migrants better. That requires cleaning up the Department of Home Affairs
7th February 2024 Legal grievances against the South African Department of Home Affairs, including contempt of court cases, are depressingly common. Too frequently... →
DRC misses another opportunity to build a democracy
By: ISS, Institute for Security Studies 7th February 2024 Following President Félix Tshisekedi’s contested victory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) December 2023 elections, democracy hangs... →
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger want to leave Ecowas. A political scientist explains the fallout
6th February 2024 Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have sent Ecowas, west Africa’s main political union of 15 countries, a formal notice of their withdrawal from the... →
Hage Geingob: Namibian president who played a modernising role
6th February 2024 Hage Gottfried Geingob served as the third president of Namibia from 2015 until his death on February 4 2024. He was Namibia’s first prime minister... →
Thirty years of rural health research: South Africa’s Agincourt studies offer unique insights
6th February 2024 In 1992 a group of academics from the University of the Witwatersrand introduced a health and socio-demographic surveillance system in remote,... →
Surveillance and the state: South Africa’s proposed new spying law is open for comment – an expert points out its flaws
6th February 2024 In early 2021, the South African Constitutional Court found that the country’s State Security Agency, through its signals intelligence agency, the... →
South Africa’s military is expected to do more than ever with tighter budgets: how the force has declined over 30 years
6th February 2024 The South African National Defence Force marks 30 years this year, having been established on 27 April 1994. It’s as old as the country’s... →
Does Ethiopia’s transitional justice amount to quasi-compliance?
By: ISS, Institute for Security Studies 5th February 2024 Ethiopia’s post-2018 transitional justice process has been referred to as ‘quasi-compliance’ – aimed more at appeasing international demands for... →
Morocco outmanoeuvres SA at the UN Human Rights Council
By: ISS, Institute for Security Studies 5th February 2024 No one in South Africa was more delighted than International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor when the national soccer team Bafana... →