Op-Ed: Mozambican government’s legitimacy crisis reinforces authoritarianism
By Boaventura Monjane and Teresa Amal | Daily Maverick | 11 Jan 2023 The current crisis in Mozambique is due mainly to the inability of the state and the government to respond to the primary concerns of the Mozambican people. These include…
BEYOND THE COP27 OP-ED | Climate crisis – practical action begins with better understanding of planetary reality
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 09 Jan 2023 Documents that were kept under wraps for 50 years give us insights that help explain why efforts to agree on climate change interventions have failed so far. The scale of the climate…
CARBON CRISIS OP-ED: Why the fossil-fuel industry is a distraction to understanding the failure of COP27
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 01 Dec 2022 We should not be distracted by holding the fossil-fuel industry accountable for the failures of the COPs. Instead, we must understand the incestuous links between politics and business and why world leaders…
INTRODUCING A (UNIVERSAL) BASIC INCOME GRANT IN SOUTH AFRICA
The Basic Income Grant (BIG) has long been a topic of debate in South Africa. The idea was first raised in the 1997 White Paper on Social Welfare. More than 20 years later more than half the population lives on…
Statement: More than 11 million South Africans remain jobless!
The Assembly of the Unemployed (AoU) and the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) are not moved by the recently released figures that indicate that the unemployment rate decreased to 32.9% from 33.9% in the second quarter of 2022. According…
Op-Ed: We should be sceptical of climate loans
By Andile Zulu | Mail & Guardian | 25 Nov 2022 Who does the government serve? As people across the country struggle to survive, witnessing their country deteriorate because of pervasive economic dysfunction and misgovernance, the lethargy and inaction of the ANC government…
Taking Back the Just Transition for Climate Protection and Decent Work!
The AIDC, with the support of FES, is inviting you to debate the energy transition in South Africa. This discussion amongst trade unionists, social and environmental justice activists is urgent in light of the crisis of energy and climate policy. There are growing differences…
Namibian Journal of Social Justice – Vol 2, November 2022
Since 2019, AMCU has been embroiled in a legal battle with Samancor Chrome, the second-largest chrome company in the world. In this case, a whistleblower has alleged that certain directors shifted billions of Rand from the company into overseas tax…
RACE RELATIONS OP-ED: Where does the call for greater complexity in public discourse take South Africa?
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 16 Nov 2022 Two recent articles make the same poignant plea: as a prior condition to addressing South Africa’s whirlpool of problems is the need for the best possible understanding of what those problems are.…
2022 School of Political Ecology
The 2022 Indian Ocean School of Political Ecology took place in the island country of Mauritius on the 25th of October and concluded on the 2nd of November. Over 130 delegates, hailing from numerous countries within the Indian Ocean and…
AIDC statement: More foreign loans = greater indebtedness and hardship
The AIDC notes with great concern, the third secretive loan agreement that President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed on behalf of South Africa in Egypt. This follows the Glasgow deal struck in 2021. The ongoing lack of transparency and accountability by…
LABOUR LEGISLATION OP-ED: What lies behind the extra-legal manipulations of the Employment Equity Act?
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 06 Nov 2022 The last laugh resides with the black bourgeoisie, along with other ambitious and would-be upwardly mobile and mostly African people. They have turned the racism that once imprisoned them into a most…
CRIME & CORRUPTION OP-ED: The smoke and mirrors of greed — what lies hidden in plain sight
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 25 Oct 2022 Crime and corruption are the natural corollaries of greed. It would be an economic disaster if we were ever to succeed in tackling them. Crime, after all, is almost certainly the largest…
AIDC Statement on the 2022 Mid-Term Budget (MTBPS): Extreme austerity and budget cuts continue in a glass house of orthodoxy!
Minister Enoch Gondongwana’s speech illustrates how the government has fully adopted a neoliberal austerity agenda, including the privatisation of the country’s energy and transport systems. It remains committed to major budget cuts and harsh austerity as Treasury continues to swing…
Preview of the 2022 Mini-Budget: AIDC calls on the government to abandon austerity!
On Wednesday, 26th of October 2022, Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana will be tabling the 2022 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) in Parliament. As the Alternative Information and Development Centre, we continue to challenge the government’s austerity agenda which has…
#FixEskom Webinar Series
As the country plunges deeper into an energy crisis, the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) invites you to join us for a series of webinars on loadshedding and South Africa’s energy crisis. The webinars will provide insights into what…
AIDC Statement: Interest rates hike to push SA towards recession!
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has hiked the interest rate by another 75 basis points. The repo rate will now increase to 6.25%, and the prime rate to 9.75%, from 9%. This is like pulling the handbrake on the…
WEBINAR: Impact of Shell Judgement for the Right to Say NO!
AIDC together with Amadiba Crisis Committee and the Southern Africa Green Revolutionary Council are hosting an exciting webinar to discuss the power-shifting Shell judgement and the impacts of the judgement for the Right to Say No. For communities that are…
Victory for the Right to Say No!
On 1 September 2022, the Makhanda High Court handed down an important and progressive judgement against Shell, Impact Africa, BG International, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries setting aside the exploration…
AIDC submission on the 2023 Medium-Term Economic Framework (MTEF)
The Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), in support, and as part of the Budget Justice Coalition (BJC) has made a submission on the 2023 Medium-Term Economic Framework (MTEF) with a specific focus on the long-standing, chronic and unique challenge…
Global School on Combating Illicit Financial Flows, Profit Shifting, Tax and Wage Evasion
The Global South Project on Combating IFFs and BEPS, the Churches and Mining network, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, and the Alternative Information & Development Centre will be hosting a Global School on Combating Illicit Financial Flows, Profit…
AIDC statement in support of the #NationalShutdown!
The South African Federation of Trade Union (SAFTU) and working-class formations, including the Assembly of the Unemployed are embarking on a national shutdown on 24 August 2022. The national shutdown is taking up demands against the rising cost of living…
United Front to Address Loadshedding
Towards a Public Pathway Approach to Energy Transition On Wednesday, July 27th, 2022, representatives of unions and social movements met in Johannesburg to discuss the country’s energy crisis. The representatives agreed to form a united front to resist privatisation of…
Communities’ ‘right to say no’ must be enshrined in the Binding Treaty!
Last month, the Alternative Information and Development Centre together with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies and Lawyers for Human Rights hosted a two-day indaba on the UN Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights in Johannesburg. The theme was:…
