AIDC welcomes the successful vote for a United Nations Tax Convention
Today, the members of the United Nations voted to approve a resolution, tabled by the Africa Group, calling for the establishment of a United Nations framework convention on taxation. This is a landmark moment, marking possibly the biggest shift in…
Losing the Lion’s Share: Understanding Illicit Financial Flows from the Perspective of Workers and Communities in the Global South
The Alternative Information & Development Centre, the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, Iglesias y Minería and the Justiça nos Trilhos will be hosting a webinar on Understanding Illicit Financial Flows from the Perspective of Workers and Communities in…
Reforms are not a silver bullet for the energy crisis
By Andile Zulu What pragmatic and impactful reforms are needed to end load-shedding and solve South Africa’s energy crisis? This is a difficult and complicated question that occupies the minds of many South Africans. In the midst of contentious debates…
AIDC submission to the Select and Standing Committees on Finance on the 2023 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement
The Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) made a written submission on the Revised Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals to the Select and Standing Committees on Finance on the 2023 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement which speak to a number of…
MTBPS2023: AIDC Statement on the 2023 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement
The Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, which sets the framework for the national budget over the next three years is a disaster for a country on the brink of social collapse. South Africa is facing a devastating social crisis, not a…
AIDC welcomes Africa Group’s Draft UN Resolution Towards Global Tax Body
The United Nations last week published a draft resolution, tabled by Nigeria on behalf of the Africa Group, calling for a United Nations convention on international tax cooperation. This is a welcome step towards fixing the outdated international tax framework…
AIDC statement on the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill: Let’s keep our energy affordable!
On Friday 13 October, the Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC) made a submission on the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill advocating for the halting of the independent transmission company setup process. Last month, the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and…
Energy Transition Mythbusters: Unpacking the 6 policy myths that threaten decarbonisation
The Transnational Institute in collaboration with the Trade Unions for Energy Democracy has published a report aimed at challenging six harmful but influential energy transition myths used to persuade us that the private sector, free markets, cheaper prices and decentralisation…
JUST TRANSITION OP-ED: Social ownership of renewable energy — searching for the deck chairs long after the Titanic has sunk
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 19 Sep 2023 Why do the European failures in transitioning to social ownership of energy get so little attention? South Africa needs to understand where potential pitfalls lie and grapple with them as a…
AIDC is hiring: Economic Justice Project Officer
The Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) is inviting interested applicants who meet the criteria to apply for the vacancy of the Economic Justice Project Officer. This is a full-time position – the contract ends in December 2024 AIDC is a…
Rights for the People rules for TNCs: First impressions on the updated draft treaty on TNCs and human rights
Statement of the Global Campaign, 11th of September 2023 The Global Campaign to Reclaim People’s Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity (Global Campaign) is a worldwide network of over 250 social movements, civil society organisations, trade unions and communities…
State-owned entities: A war zone between political and economic elites
By Andile Zulu The rapid collapse of state-owned entities continues to threaten South Africa’s political stability and intensifies the social crises created by a stagnant economy. On 7 August, the Daily Maverick reported a story that captured the tragic realities…
AIDC climate justice digest
From 2009, the AIDC saw the necessity of integrating the ecological crisis and especially the climate crisis into its programmes and strategies, as a significant dimension of the overall crisis of civilisation which the world was facing. A major theme…
INTERNATIONAL TRADE OP-ED: Why do we allow the rich to rig the rules in their favour?
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 06 Aug 2023 The very language of trade negotiations is the language of war. Once concluded, the trade agreements give way, with astonishing cynicism, to the language of double-speak and deception. “The problem…
A different, better South Africa needs more than just blaming the ANC
By Jeff Rudin Most South Africans agree that the country is in a mess and that the ANC must go if there is to be any chance of a second building of a new South Africa. Re-birthing the South Africa so…
PANEL DISCUSSION: What constitutes a progressive perspective on our energy crisis?
The Progressive Citizenship Initiative will be hosting a panel discussion on ‘What constitutes a progressive perspective on our energy crisis? On the panel, will be Dominic Brown, Economic Justice Coordinator from the Alternative Information and Development Centre and Professor Mark…
OPINION | Tembeka Ngcukaitobi’s keynote address ignores some facts
By Jeff Rudin I would go further than Mail & Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Ron Derby. He invited recipients of M&G Mornings (26 June) to read what he described as Tembeka Ngcukaitobi’s “honest dissertation of the South African story”. More than being “honest”,…
STATEMENT: The Right to Say No Campaign Rejects the Farce that is the MPRDA Review Summit!
On 13 July 2023, The Right to Say No Campaign joins mining-affected communities from various parts of the country in a picket against the Minerals Petroleum Resources Development Act Review Summit convened by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMRE) on…
BEYOND THE RAINBOW OP-ED: Narrow views of SA from afar may be bleak, but the reasons for hope are worth salvaging
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 11 Jul 2023 Out of a group of 15 classmates who matriculated together in 1960, only three have remained in South Africa. The group still stays in touch, with those outside the…
BUSINESS ABUSES OP-ED: Corporate human rights abuses can be curbed across Africa with buy-in from governments to honour the UN treaty
By Boaventura Monjane and Anesu Dera | Daily Maverick | 02 Jul 2023 On 28 and 29 June, community members, popular formations and civil society organisations from across the African continent gathered in Johannesburg to participate in the African Regional Indaba…
WATER-RELATED HEALTH CRISES OP-ED (PART TWO): Cholera — examining the horrific consequences of government’s own contaminated policy choices
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 27 Jun 2023 Understanding the background to the neoliberal political economy that underpins government policy choices is a starting point for addressing the changes needed to reduce the excesses of our country’s poverty, unemployment…
WATER-RELATED HEALTH CRISES OP-ED (PART ONE): Cholera — have we really learnt nothing from Covid-19?
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 26 Jun 2023 The first of two articles examining water-related health crises in South Africa asks why we have learnt nothing from previous crises and why our government, having responded to each new crisis…
African Regional Indaba on UN binding treaty takes place this week!
Civil society organisations are hosting the fourth African Regional Indaba on the UN binding treaty on business and human rights at Parktonian Hotel in Johannesburg on 27 and 28 June 2023. The Centre for Applied Legal Studies, ActionAid, the…
CLIMATE CHANGE OP-ED: The green economy – at best, a wishful illusion; at worst, a deceptive myth
By Jeff Rudin | Daily Maverick | 25 May 2023 The claims of the green economy, together with the green economy’s long history, provide the essential backdrop to the question of why, after a gestation of 34 years, it still…
