Politics is about power. Power can oppress. Power can liberate. And power gained from the mandate of struggling people can be squandered. South Africa has become a laboratory where that squandering has been tested to its limits. Conferences like this one are meant to be a reality check. The question is simple: Is South Africa the picture of what liberation promised? Honesty in grappling with that question is what brings scholarship back to politics. Out of that scholarship, we are…

On 20 May 2026, Britain’s National Energy System Operator (NESO) issued a market notice restricting its ability to reverse power flows across interconnectors with France, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium [2]. The restriction, effective immediately and in place until year-end, is the latest consequence of a structural problem that NESO’s own statutory reporting has been documenting for several years. According to the 2025 Annual Balancing Costs Report — published under Condition C9 of the NESO Electricity System Operator Licence —…

The Gradient of Atmospheric Violence The quarterly drop in national murders is a testament to the tactical resilience of the SAPS, but it exposes a deeper, terrifying truth: we are celebrating a temporary sandbag barrier while the mountain of our socioeconomic crisis continues to fracture. As the latest crime statistics flash across television screens and political podiums, the official narrative is one of triumph. A 9.5% reduction in murders is, by any clinical metric, a positive trajectory. It represents 546…

Internationalisation in higher education has evolved over the past 20 years from a niche pursuit into a central component of institutional strategy, increasingly supported and championed through national legislation. It has become a multifaceted process involving various stakeholders within a university, including students, staff, leadership, and policymakers. Since the advent of COVID-19, the definition of internationalisation evolved from a primary focus on international student and staff mobility, exchanges,scholarships, collaborations, and partnerships to include curriculum development, intercultural competence, communications and marketing,…

The paremias “tšhipa e taga mohlabeng wa gayo,” is a Northern Sotho adage which literally means a “wildcat shines on its sand,” but figuratively means “there is no place like home.” Chepape Makgato used this adage as the theme of his art exhibition, which is unfolding at the Polokwane Art Museum, both as a celebration and as a piercing act of cultural advocacy. The theme was chosen because he felt comfortable for exhibiting in his hometown for the first time…

I know my views are going to be unpopular as always. While the anti-equity debate in South Africa usually focuses on efficiency or fairness, this opinion piece shifts the lens to a moral and structural failure on the part of the beneficiaries themselves. It is an attempt to create a modern application of Frantz Fanon’s warnings about the “national middle class” (or the national bourgeoisie) in post-colonial states: a class that serves as a transmission line between the nation and…

The word Abahambe (let them go) carries a heavy resonance in the South African lexicon. It is a phrase often born of frustration and political theatre, yet it serves as a modern echo of a centuries-old structural logic.  When we examine the current state of the international labour political economy, particularly across the African continent, it becomes clear that we are not witnessing a series of isolated xenophobic outbursts or modern policy failures. Instead, we are seeing the latest iteration…

Breaking the Berlin Wall in South Africa’s Criminal Justice System As a young man in high school, I spent many afternoons lost in the pages of Scotland Yard novels. I was captivated by the detective: methodical, sharp-minded, and quietly determined. He was not a bureaucrat chasing targets, but an artisan of truth, standing between chaos and order with intellect, patience, and institutional support. To my young mind, justice worked because the system respected those who did the hard work. Reality…

A Determination That Redefines the 2030 Capacity Cliff from Planning Risk toLegal Certainty On 31 March 2025, the then Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr D.T. George, issued his determination on the exemption applications submitted by Eskom SOC (Pty) Ltd in terms of Section 59 of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, 2004[1]. The decision received measured coverage in the energy press. It deserved considerably more. The determination did not merely resolve a regulatory dispute about particulate…

The soulful, rhythmic pulse of Stimela’s “whispering in the dark” has long served as a metaphor for the unseen struggles of the South African people. Today, however, that whisper has moved from the shadows of history into the brightly lit corridors of the South African Police Service (SAPS). It is no longer a song of hope, but a siren of institutional decay. The recent media briefing by suspended Mpumalanga Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela, has cracked open a door…