insert_link South Africa South Africa needs to manage migrants better. That requires cleaning up the Department of Home Affairs By Alan Hirsch, University of Cape Town Legal grievances against the South African Department of Home Affairs, including contempt of court cases, are depressingly common. Too frequently the minister has to apologise to a court, or to ask for more time, on behalf of the department. Most of the court cases involve the operations of the department regarding visas and permits for foreign visitors, immigrants and prospective refugees. […] todayFebruary 5, 2024 16
insert_link Africa Madagascar: giant tortoises have returned 600 years after they were wiped out By Grant Joseph, University of Cape Town A six-year-old project to return giant tortoises to the wild in Madagascar could result in thousands of the 350kg megaherbivores re-populating the island for the first time in 600 years. The first group of Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) were brought in from the Seychelles in 2018, and have been reproducing on their own since. Ecologist Grant Joseph explains how reintroducing […] todayFebruary 5, 2024 17
insert_link Africa Google and Oracle ramp up cloud in Africa to tap fast-growing e-Conomy By Seth Onyango, via bird story agency Google Cloud announced on Friday (February 2) that it had opened its first cloud region for Africa, located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The new region will offer its core cloud services, such as computing, storage, networking, and security, to customers across the continent. The move comes as research from McKinsey showed that while cloud-native startups in Africa are luring tech […] todayFebruary 5, 2024 27
insert_link South Africa South Africa’s military is expected to do more than ever with tighter budgets: how the force has declined over 30 years Theo Neethling, University of the Free State 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 constitutional democracy, the result of a negotiated political settlement that ended apartheid. The defence force consists of the army, air force, navy, and military health service. It’s an amalgamation of the former apartheid era South African Defence Force, […] todayFebruary 5, 2024 40
insert_link Africa Chad: promises of a new chapter fade as junta strengthens its hold ahead of elections By Helga Dickow, University of Freiburg It’s been three years since Chad’s former president Idriss Déby Itno died. A transitional authority took over after his death. Yet the transition to democracy that was on the cards following his 31 years in power has failed to materialise. What Chadians hoped for was: a referendum on whether they wanted to be a unitary or federal state a return to constitutional […] todayFebruary 5, 2024 3
insert_link Namibia Hage Geingob: Namibian president who played a modernising role By Henning Melber, University of Pretoria 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 from 1990 to 2002, and served as prime minister again from 2012 to 2015. Geingob was born on 3 August 1941. He joined the ranks of the national liberation movement South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo during its […] todayFebruary 5, 2024 10
insert_link Opinion Pieces Are social media apps ‘dangerous products’? 2 scholars explain how the companies rely on young users but fail to protect them The CEOs of Discord, Snap, TikTok, X and Meta prepare to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 31, 2024. Alex Wong/Getty Images Joan Donovan, Boston University and Sara Parker, McGill University “You have blood on your hands.” “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through.” These quotes, the first from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaking to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the second from Zuckerberg to families […] todayFebruary 2, 2024 26
insert_link World Ukraine war: corruption scandals and high-level rifts could become an existential threat as Kyiv asks for more military aid By Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham and Tetyana Malyarenko, National University Odesa Law Academy The latest revelations about corruption in Ukraine tell a complex story. A scandal has engulfed the Ukrainian ministry of defence, where 100,000 mortar shells worth about $40m (£31m) were paid for but never delivered. But within days of this story emerging, Ukraine achieved its best-ever ranking in the annual corruption perceptions index complied […] todayFebruary 2, 2024 22
insert_link South Africa South Africans are opting to go off-grid: how they’re being helped, and hindered, in their efforts By Germarié Viljoen, North-West University and Felix Dube, University of Pretoria Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned power utility, struggles to generate and supply a stable flow of electricity to meet demand. In 2023, there were times when households and businesses had no power for up to 11 hours a day. Eskom has warned that load shedding will be worse in 2024. The result is that many South Africans […] todayFebruary 2, 2024 16