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        <title>Polity.org.za | Latest Opinions</title>
        <description><![CDATA[Polity offers engaging and in-depth views from South African opinion makers. Regular columnists and guest writers offer analysis of current local and global events.]]></description>
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            <title>Internet access is unequal in South Africa’s economic powerhouse: survey shows race and ...</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/internet-access-is-unequal-in-south-africas-economic-powerhouse-survey-shows-race-and-income-mark-the-digital-divide-2026-06-08</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Digital technologies create great opportunities, but the transformation they offer isn’t equally within reach of everyone. Access is determined by a vast digital divide.  The digital divide refers to the gap between individuals and households who have access to the internet, and those who do not. The digital divide can restrict education attainment, economic opportunity, the ability to adapt to rapidly changing employment environments, healthcare access, social inclusion, and overall quality of life.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>723078</a_id>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>When global trade becomes a weapon, how can African economies protect themselves?</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/when-global-trade-becomes-a-weapon-how-can-african-economies-protect-themselves-2026-06-08</link>
            <description><![CDATA[“Today, everyone recognises that trade is as much a security issue as an economic one.”  European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde made this comment in February 2026, while addressing the Munich Security Conference.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:03:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>723077</a_id>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Elections 2026: is Zambia’s democratic success story beginning to fray? </title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/elections-2026-is-zambias-democratic-success-story-beginning-to-fray-2026-06-08</link>
            <description><![CDATA[There is a danger that voters see the August election outcome as shaped by legal manoeuvring rather than the ballot. Zambia is one of the few African countries to have experienced peaceful transfers of power between multiple political parties. But its sound democratic record – particularly the Electoral Commission of Zambia’s (ECZ) technical capacity – will be tested during the upcoming general elections on 13 August.]]></description>
            <author>ISS, Institute for Security Studies     </author>
            <category>Institute for Security Studies</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:54:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>723075</a_id>
        <updated>1780912638</updated>
        <published>1780912440</published>
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        <editor>ISS, Institute for Security Studies     </editor>
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            <title>Opinion: Reimagining public health service design in the era of National Health Insurance and ...</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/opinion-reimagining-public-health-service-design-in-the-era-of-national-health-insurance-and-digital-health-2026-06-05</link>
            <description><![CDATA[South Africa's health system carries the heavy imprint of history. The apartheid era bequeathed a fragmented, inequitable system in which race determined access to care, geographic distribution of resources favoured white minority areas, and public facilities serving the black majority were systematically under-resourced. Nearly three decades after the democratic transition, these inequities persist, writes Mark Burke in this latest opinion article. The country spends roughly 8.5% of GDP on health (comparable to many OECD nations), yet achieves outcomes more typical of lower-income countries. Life expectancy, which rose from 52 years in 2005 to 61 years by 2021, largely driven by the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy, remains below the global average for upper-middle-income countries.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>Other Opinions</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:16:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>722991</a_id>
        <updated>1780657783</updated>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title> Is local lagging?</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/is-local-lagging-2026-06-05</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Billions are flowing into South Africa’s green economy. #PowerTracker investigates whether local manufacturers, workers and communities are truly benefitting The Atlantis Special Economic Zone (ASEZ) in the Western Cape was established in 2020 to attract green economy investment and support local manufacturing.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>Other Opinions</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:23:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>722952</a_id>
        <updated>1780644758</updated>
        <published>1780644180</published>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Virtue of necessity</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/virtue-of-necessity-2026-06-05</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Following an embarrassing false start, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has set a deadline of early next year for the finalisation of a new draft of the national AI policy. In April, the department officially withdrew the initial draft after News24 reported that AI-hallucinated sources had been included in the list of references. Minister Solly Malatsi told lawmakers last week that generative AI had been “used irresponsibly during the drafting process” and confirmed that two department officials had been placed on precautionary suspension.]]></description>
            <author>Terence Creamer</author>
            <category>REAL ECONOMY: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>722221</a_id>
        <updated>1780384417</updated>
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        <editor>Terence Creamer</editor>
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            <title>JNIM’s blockade tactics threaten West Africa’s trade corridors </title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/jnims-blockade-tactics-threaten-west-africas-trade-corridors-2026-06-04</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Recent terror attacks across Mali have intensified JNIM’s blockades of vital transport routes connecting port cities to Sahelian capitals. On 25 April, Mali was struck by a series of coordinated attacks carried out by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). The assaults targeted the towns of Kati, Mopti, Sévaré, Gao and the capital Bamako, resulting in numerous casualties, and the assassination of Defence Minister Sadio Camara.]]></description>
            <author>ISS, Institute for Security Studies     </author>
            <category>Institute for Security Studies</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:51:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>722856</a_id>
        <updated>1780566941</updated>
        <published>1780566660</published>
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        <editor>ISS, Institute for Security Studies     </editor>
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            <title>Land reform that works: What successful farmers can teach us </title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/land-reform-that-works-what-successful-farmers-can-teach-us-2026-06-04</link>
            <description><![CDATA[A popular narrative holds that land reform has failed. But evidence from a study across four provinces tells a different story. Success is not about land reform alone, but about building capable farmers. More than three decades after the end of apartheid, land reform remains one of South Africa’s most politically charged and economically important policies. Since 1994, the government has sought to redress historical land dispossession through restitution, redistribution, and tenure reform. Yet public debate often frames land reform as a failure, pointing to underutilised farms, wasted public funds, and declining agricultural output.]]></description>
            <author>Econ3x3  </author>
            <category>Econ3x3</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:38:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>722838</a_id>
        <updated>1780562422</updated>
        <published>1780562280</published>
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        <editor>Econ3x3  </editor>
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            <title>The cage, the bullet and the border: How Southern Africa punishes dissent and why our region ...</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/the-cage-the-bullet-and-the-border-how-southern-africa-punishes-dissent-and-why-our-region-must-reclaim-its-institutions-2026-06-04</link>
            <description><![CDATA[From Harare to Dar es Salaam to Mbabane to Lusaka, governments have learned they no longer need a guilty verdict to silence critics. They need a cell, a charge sheet, and a calendar they control. When the cell will not do, there is the bullet and, for those who survive, the border. At the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), we see this pattern every other week. The question is whether the region's institutions are strong enough to stop this crisis. On Africa Day, while the political class delivered its annual sermons on liberation and sovereignty, former minister Walter Mzembi walked back through the gates of Harare Remand Prison. Not as a prisoner this time, he had been acquitted a fortnight earlier after more than ten months in detention on charges that ultimately collapsed into nothing, but as a visitor. He had come to see Godfrey Karembera, the activist Zimbabwe knows as Madzibaba VeShanduko, whom he called one of his ‘sons’ from his own months inside.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>Other Opinions</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:23:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>722834</a_id>
        <updated>1780561676</updated>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Tax data can be mined to shape better policies. South Africa, Uganda and Zambia show how</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/tax-data-can-be-mined-to-shape-better-policies-south-africa-uganda-and-zambia-show-how-2026-06-03</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Bilateral aid to Africa fell by nearly a quarter in 2025, the largest annual decline in the history of official development assistance. Meanwhile, sovereign debt interest payments now consume on average 27% of government revenues across the continent, up from 19% in 2019.  The pressure to fund development from within has never been greater. But meeting it requires African governments to understand their own economies with precision: which tax policies work, which incentives serve their purpose, how fiscal decisions distribute their consequences.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 15:54:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>722799</a_id>
        <updated>1780494964</updated>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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