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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>South Africa needs more than a five-point plan to prevent violence</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/south-africa-needs-more-than-a-five-point-plan-to-prevent-violence-2026-10-07</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Violence against women is more likely to be reduced if violence among boys and among men is not accepted as normal and inevitable. The 9 September murder of Elizabeth Moselakgomo and subsequent revelations that at least 10 women’s bodies were found in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, between 15 July and 28 September, have focused attention on gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa.]]></description>
            <author>ISS, Institute for Security Studies     </author>
            <category>Institute for Security Studies</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 11:52:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731721</a_id>
        <updated>1791381977</updated>
        <published>1791366720</published>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Fact-checking 2026 Independence Day claims by Nigerian president Bola Tinubu </title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/fact-checking-2026-independence-day-claims-by-nigerian-president-bola-tinubu-2026-10-07</link>
            <description><![CDATA[With Nigeria’s presidential election set for 16 January 2027, president Bola Tinubu used the country’s 66th Independence Day on 1 October to make the case for his record. Tinubu pointed to improvements in economic growth, inflation, foreign reserves and investment. These issues are likely to remain central to the campaign, particularly after reforms that have put pressure on prices and household finances.]]></description>
            <author>Africa  Check</author>
            <category>Other Opinions</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 11:48:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731720</a_id>
        <updated>1791366709</updated>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Protest later or push for better planning now? 7 actions South African voters can take before ...</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/protest-later-or-push-for-better-planning-now-7-actions-south-african-voters-can-take-before-local-elections-2026-10-07</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Every local government election season, South Africans are handed the same menu. They hear from councillor hopefuls that they will repair potholes, stop water outages and power cuts, and improve refuse collection. Politicians campaign on service delivery as though it were the only job of local government. It isn’t.  Service delivery is what happens after the real decisions have already been made: where people are allowed to live, work and move, at what density, and on whose land. That decision is town planning, and it is the most under-discussed, under-resourced, and consequential function of South African local government.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 11:02:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731725</a_id>
        <updated>1791367428</updated>
        <published>1791363720</published>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Sudan’s death toll in 2025 could be as high as 100 000: how we did the count</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/sudans-death-toll-in-2025-could-be-as-high-as-100-000-how-we-did-the-count-2026-10-07</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Estimates of the number of people directly killed in Sudan’s civil war vary widely, in part because counting casualties in active conflict zones is extremely difficult. In 2025, for instance, one conflict monitoring organisation reported around 19 000 direct deaths from political violence across Sudan. Other research teams put the toll at more than 70 000.  Conflict researcher Paola Vesco and her team have developed a model that helps measure the uncertainty around such conflict death estimates. Their approach takes into account the tendency of conflict datasets to underestimate fatalities, and provides a more realistic range of possible death tolls. They explain how their model could improve estimates in conflicts like Sudan’s.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 10:56:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731724</a_id>
        <updated>1791367248</updated>
        <published>1791363360</published>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>The global panel on inequality needs African evidence: here’s how it could work</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/the-global-panel-on-inequality-needs-african-evidence-heres-how-it-could-work-2026-10-07</link>
            <description><![CDATA[World leaders have been asked to support a proposed International Panel on Inequality. Brazil, Norway, South Africa and Spain, together with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, made the call on the margins of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September 2026.  The panel would be modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It would assess the scale of inequality, its drivers and consequences, and the policies that can reduce it. The African Union endorsed the initiative in February, and South Africa intends to present a General Assembly resolution to establish it.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 10:54:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731722</a_id>
        <updated>1791366990</updated>
        <published>1791363240</published>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Military coups promise change – 4 ways they can leave African countries worse off</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/military-coups-promise-change-4-ways-they-can-leave-african-countries-worse-off-2026-10-06</link>
            <description><![CDATA[A military coup d’état is the ouster of an elected president or head of state, usually through the use or threat of force. Putschists (those who participate in a coup) often justify their actions by accusing the government of mismanaging the economy and lowering living standards. Political instability is another reason coup makers give for their actions.  A coup is not necessarily the most effective way to cure economic and political ills, however. Positive change comes instead through institutional reform, structural economic changes and engagement with civil society – including the people who create wealth and economic growth.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 11:18:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731624</a_id>
        <updated>1791278439</updated>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Russia’s military recruitment networks exploit Western tech platforms</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/russias-military-recruitment-networks-exploit-western-tech-platforms-2026-10-06</link>
            <description><![CDATA[African countries face an uphill battle in holding digital companies accountable for the use of their platforms in Russia’s war effort. An investigation into the war being waged by Russia in Ukraine has found that Western digital resources are being used to dupe African and other nationals into joining a covert and decentralised military recruitment campaign. This campaign increasingly appears to depend on supplies of infantry from outside of Russia.]]></description>
            <author>ISS, Institute for Security Studies     </author>
            <category>Institute for Security Studies</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 11:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731622</a_id>
        <updated>1791278265</updated>
        <published>1791278100</published>
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        <editor>ISS, Institute for Security Studies     </editor>
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            <title>Africa’s new credit agency: why it’s needed</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/africas-new-credit-agency-why-its-needed-2026-10-05</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The formal launch of the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) has required considerable institutional commitment. It brings to fruition an effort that has been almost a decade in the making.  In 2017, the African Union gave the African Peer Review Mechanism a mandate to support member states in the field of credit rating agencies. By 2019, African institutions were examining the feasibility of creating an agency of their own. Feasibility and design work followed, then political endorsement of a private-sector-driven model, the selection of Mauritius as its home, and now the launch itself.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 05 Oct 2026 10:59:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731508</a_id>
        <updated>1791190888</updated>
        <published>1791190740</published>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Rising CO₂ is making African savanna grasses grow more – what this means for grazing, fire ...</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/rising-co-is-making-african-savanna-grasses-grow-more-what-this-means-for-grazing-fire-and-carbon-storage-2026-10-05</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Plants use carbon dioxide (CO₂) in photosynthesis to make the carbohydrates they need to grow. As the CO₂ in the atmosphere rises, mainly because humans are burning fossil fuels, many plants can photosynthesise more or use water more efficiently. This is known as “CO₂ fertilisation”.  Scientists have carried out numerous studies into CO₂ fertilisation in forests, crops and temperate ecosystems. What has been much less researched is how wild grasses in tropical savannas respond.]]></description>
            <author>Creamer Media Reporter  </author>
            <category>The Conversation</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 05 Oct 2026 10:57:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731505</a_id>
        <updated>1791190763</updated>
        <published>1791190620</published>
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        <editor>Creamer Media Reporter  </editor>
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            <title>Mozambique’s army is losing a crucial counter-insurgency battle</title>
            <link>https://www.polity.org.za/article/mozambiques-army-is-losing-a-crucial-counter-insurgency-battle-2026-10-05</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Foreign training has strengthened the army, but abuses against civilians undermine the community support needed to defeat insurgents. When terrorists attacked Cabo Delgado nine years ago on 5 October 2017, the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces (FADM) was taken by surprise, despite its three decades of experience fighting armed conflicts inside the country.]]></description>
            <author>ISS, Institute for Security Studies     </author>
            <category>Institute for Security Studies</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 05 Oct 2026 10:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
        <a_id>731504</a_id>
        <updated>1791190622</updated>
        <published>1791190500</published>
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        <editor>ISS, Institute for Security Studies     </editor>
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