Friday, August 11, 2017 - 15:15
Two CSSR researchers – Chris Saunders and Jeremy Seekings – have written recent pieces for the The Conversation, an online site for scholarly analysis of topical issues.
Thursday, June 8, 2017 - 12:30
Ndangwa’s interest is in scholarly work that can liberate Africans from chronic poverty, hunger and destitution, as well as work that challenges tyranny in Africa and spurs people to action against dictatorships and autocratic regimes. His two current projects are on indigenous social security systems in Southern and West Africa, and social welfare and social work in Southern Africa. Both projects will culminate in books.
Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - 15:30
The administration of the 2016 local government elections in South Africa has been celebrated as yet another important contributor to the delivery of free and fair elections. Yet competitive elections, an essential component of any democratic system, require more than smooth running administrative systems. Competitive elections require conditions that create a climate of tolerance, free political campaigning, and open public debate. An election without freedom to campaign is doomed to be stunted and inefficient as the right to freedom of expression is one of a web of mutually supporting rights the Constitution affords to citizens. This paper presents an analysis of narrative reports on instances of violations of the Electoral Code of Conduct, including intimidation and violence, gathered by Civil Society violence monitors and election observers from 1 March until 31 September 2016.
Monday, June 5, 2017 - 15:15
Two CSSR researchers – Chris Saunders and Jeremy Seekings – have written recent pieces for the The Conversation, an online site for scholarly analysis of topical issues. Chris Saunders – together with Henning Melber – examines the current politics of succession in the ruling parties in Namibia (SWAPO) and South Africa (ANC). In both countries incumbent presidents have resorted to increasingly populist rhetoric to shape the succession process. Jeremy Seekings’s piece draws on his research late last year in Zanzibar (which is an autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania last year). It examines the lessons from the introduction of old-age pensions in Zanzibar in 2016. The Zanzibar case is examined more fully in a CSSR Working Paper (WP 393).
Monday, June 5, 2017 - 15:00
Gabby is working with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on a study of the provision of disability grants under Zambia’s Social Cash Transfer programme. Jeremy was the plenary speaker at a colloquium on social protection organised by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and the Southern African Social Protection Experts Network (SASPEN). Jeremy and Hangala also had the good fortune to meet with past and present politicians including former President Kenneth Kaunda, former Foreign Minister Vernon ‘VJ’ Mwaanga, and current Minister of Labour and Social Security Mrs Nonde-Simukoko.
Friday, May 26, 2017 - 09:30
This paper compares two questionnaire surveys conducted in the Karoo to investigate the claim that in human-wildlife conflicts farmers systematically inflate predation reports to score political points. Although predation rates and updated predation values for the Karoo are presented, the main contribution is not “a” number but rather an analysis of what affects the magnitude of predation self-reports. The two surveys produced quite different figures, which were due to methodological choices rather than anything farmers said. With the methods standardized, the figures converged to within 3% of each other, which either means that farmers never lied at the height of the Karoo’s gin trap wars or that they are still lying about their losses despite the trust we think we have in Koup.
Thursday, May 25, 2017 - 13:00
The administration of the 2016 local government elections in South Africa has been celebrated as yet another important contributor to the delivery of free and fair elections. Yet competitive elections, an essential component of any democratic system, require more than smooth running administrative systems. Competitive elections require conditions that create a climate of tolerance, free political campaigning, and open public debate. An election without freedom to campaign is doomed to be stunted and inefficient as the right to freedom of expression is one of a web of mutually supporting rights the Constitution affords to citizens.
Thursday, May 25, 2017 - 10:00
This paper explores the removal of several thousand non-Zambian Africans from the mining industry following Zambian independence in 1964. This process has been curiously overlooked among the multitude of detailed studies on the mining industry and the policy of ‘Zambianization’, a policy usually regarded as being about the removal of the industrial colour bar on the mines. Yet the replacement of ‘alien Africans’ with Zambian nationals was a key objective of the Zambian Government. This sits uneasily with two aspects of the existing literature. The first is the assumption, in both academic literature and popular understanding, that Zambia is a place largely devoid of ethnic and nationalist tensions.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017 - 11:00
Leading social scientists analyse longitudinal data derived from the South African Reconciliation Barometer Survey (SARB) as well as interrogate and reach critical conclusions on the state of reconciliation - including in the areas of economic transformation, race relations and social contact, political participation, national identity formation and transitional justice.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017 - 10:45
This paper focuses on ideologies of welfare – i.e. the attitudes, norms and beliefs concerning the respective roles of state, market and kin in supporting the poor – in Africa, so as to supplement political economic and institutional explanations of social policy reform. Across much of Africa, political elites have exercised significant discretion in how to respond to pressures and constraints. An ideological aversion to ‘handouts’ and ‘dependency’, and anxiety about the effects of cash transfers on productivity and morality, have been both widespread and deep-rooted across much of Africa.
Monday, May 8, 2017 - 14:45
In view of the SALRC’s proposed Bill, our paper investigates whether South Africa should criminalise ukuthwala or not. The paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of criminalising breaches of ukuthwala by drawing upon the field research findings from the community where the Jezile case originated. It is, therefore, divided into five parts. We discuss South Africa’s existing legislation in the context of ukuthwala. These include, inter alia, the Constitution, the Criminal Law Amendment (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Act, Children’s Act, Recognition of Customary Marriages Act and the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act. We also highlight the provisions of the Prohibition of Forced and Child Marriages Bill in order to assess the manner in which it seeks to criminalise forced and child marriages due to ukuthwala.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017 - 09:00
This paper explores the relationship between Abdullah and Helen “Nellie” Abdurahman with their daughters, Zainunissa “Cissie” and Waradea “Rosie” to explore themes of generational political socialization and transmission, and how fatherhood affected Abdullah's politics. Through the discussion of his daughters’ childhoods, this paper draws attention to Abdullah’s philosophies on the role of education as the mediator between the essential ‘person’ to an engaged ‘citizen'. The girls’ struggles around their own education were closely linked to their father’s work towards educational programmes and goals.