William Gumede

In most African countries, traditional leaders, chiefs and kings run communal land is if they own it. They use it for patronage purposes and punish those critical of them by depriving them of communal land rights.

Global market rules are either in favour of, or are frequently bent to benefit industrial countries.

The ‘Arab Spring’ and lessons for South Africa’s student movement

Greater workplace democracy may make South Africa’s labour market more peaceful, productive and less racially charged.

Cuba’s efforts to roll-back racism offer valuable lessons for South Africa, where racism, because of the legacy of colonialism, slavery and apartheid, is deeply ingrained within institutions, social relations and everyday behaviour.

Donald Trump’s election as US President is likely to make the world’s biggest economy more inward-looking, more protectionist and acting more unilaterally in global affairs.

Given the devastating leadership vacuum in the ANC and government, who can provide alternative direction, when the ANC is in power but unable to govern effectively, and is unlikely to do so, unless it gets a new leadership as quickly as possible? 

The challenge for South Africa is how to overcome the legacy of deep-seated individual, institutional and everyday racism long after official apartheid had been scrapped from the statue books.

A new study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows how trade misinvoicing in some commodity-based African countries caused these countries to lose as much as 67% of income from their exports.

For decades African countries have been forced by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to implement neoliberal policies, including opening their markets to foreign competition, reducing the role of the state in providing basic services and abolishing subsidies to the poor.