BRICS, a new cooperation model?

Mariano Aguirre 22 January 2013

One of the criticisms made of the emerging economies is that they are using cooperation to gain markets, political influence and access to natural resources. But that is what the countries of the North are also seeking.

Moving the MDG debate on

Will Paxton 9 January 2013

A failure to reconcile a concern for human development with genuine economic development will make the High Level Panel’s already difficult task much harder.

Something rotten in the ANC state

Hilary Wainwright 14 December 2012

The palaces of President Zuma and the massacre of miners symbolise how the gulf between rich and poor has widened in the eighteen years since the African National Congress came to power in South Africa. On the eve of the ANC conference, a report on growing disillusionment among former supporters.

Imagining pasts and futures: the Indian Parliament Murals and South Africa’s Keiskamma Tapestry

Rachel Johnson and Shirin M. Rai 14 December 2012

The tapestry and the murals are part of the complex and multi-layered ‘archi-texture’ of the parliamentary buildings, which continue to echo with older articulations of power and what the nation is and should be.

Today she is not here

Gabeba Baderoon 3 December 2012

A poem from Gabeba Baderoon. Part of a series of poems by African feminist writers for 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence. 

South Africa's massacre: peeling the onion

Roger Southall 20 August 2012

The shooting dead of striking miners by armed police at Marikana exposes hard truths about post-apartheid South Africa that the country's new elites have preferred to ignore, says Roger Southall.

Why local power and self-interest can be good for transparency

Zara Rahman, Johnny West, and Lila Caballero 6 August 2012

Think of your local Indian, South African, Mexican or Russian investor looking for guaranteed profits; pool them all together and you could have community of millions to leverage for demanding transparency in the extractive industries. It would be hard for their respective governments and companies to ignore the calls of seven million shareholders who have investments in the firms.

The re-militarisation of South Africa’s borders

Chris McMichael 20 July 2012

Heightened border security has been enforced during international summits and sporting tournaments. This idea of permanent, non-conventional threat provides a legitimation for an extensive increase of defence spending and resources, eagerly cheerled by the private sector. 

South Africa: social change or Plus ça change?

Will Emkes 1 June 2012

The consequences of Black Empowerment policies as implemented by the African National Congress (ANC) now constitute the most severe threat to South Africa’s young democracy to date. 

A global fair trade: Unctad's lesson

Paul Rogers 12 April 2012

The global power-balance is being changed by the rise of the non-western "Brics" states. This makes the pioneering work of a body committed to linking trade and development in the interest of the world's poor more relevant than ever.

Green Zone Nation: The South African government’s new growth path

Christopher McMichael 19 March 2012

Recent flirtations of the ANC with the Chinese model of economic development suggest that South African political elites fall for the erroneous fantasy that social tensions can be bought off with consumer goods

South Africa: patriarchy, paper, and reclaiming feminism

Shereen Essof 21 February 2012

It’s not an individualist but a collective feminism that we need, one that measures success not by how high a woman can climb, but by the condition in which most women remain, says Shereen Essof

Democracy for all? Minority rights and democratisation

Mark Salter 10 February 2012
The challenge of accommodating and promoting the rights of ethnic, religious and other minorities tends to emerge whenever a formerly authoritarian country begins to move towards democracy. It is faced today as the middle east and north Africa embarks on its own democratic transition. The region could be aided in the endeavour by learning lessons from earlier experience in countries such as Indonesia, says Mark Salter.

The shock-and-awe of mega sports events

Christopher McMichael 30 January 2012
How mega sporting events bring the logic of war to host-city governance. The example of the football World Cup in South Africa highlights how security for mega-events has become a self-reinforcing feedback loop between state and corporate sector, taking the analogy between Sport and War another step closer

The Cape Town model, state violence and military urbanism

Christopher McMichael 5 January 2012
The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants to present itself as South Africa's opposition-in-waiting, for the day when ANC domination withers. But look at Look at urbanisation policy in the Cape, controlled by the DA: behind the liberal rhetoric of the party lies an ideology very comfortable with increasing the suffering of the most vulnerable.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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