Forums
The IFAA Public Forum is an open platform that hosts speakers or panel discussions about pressing current social issues or political developments. Our aim is to facilitate the democratization and dissemination of progressive alternative ideas and practices; and to create opportunities for the public to engage with the ‘expert knowledge’ of intellectuals, academics, and policymakers.

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The Institute for African Alternatives invites you to a seminar on Energy Options for South Africa to be presented by Mr Viv Crone on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, at 2:30 pm Zoom Registration: https://cutt.ly/K1PwZi3 Our Presenter: Viv Crone is an electrical engineer with 50 years of experience in high-technology product design and project management. He...
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Keynote speaker Yanis Varoufakis, renowned radical economist and former Greek Finance Minister, will speak on Africa in the Face of the new Cold War and the West’s new colonial escapades The annual Ben Turok Memorial Lecture marks the anniversary of the death of IFAA’s founder and former director, the struggle stalwart,...
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Venue: Bertha House, 67 & 69 Main Rd, Mowbray, Cape Town Date: 23rd November 2022 Time: 4.30 pm for 5 pm (Snacks and Drinks in Dining Area) RSVP to: https://cutt.ly/UMAaEPh Press Statement The “Niger Delta Command”, a work of fiction will be launched at Bertha House in Mowbray, Cape Town on Wednesday the 23rd of...
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Surplus Books, Inkani Books, The Tri-Continental Institute for Social Research, and The Institute for African Alternatives, invite you to the launch of the riveting new book by Christopher McMichael Shoot to Kill: Police and Power in South Africa. From the slave-driver’s whip in the 18th century Cape Colony to the...
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The Surplus Books Reading Incubator Project and The Institute for African Alternatives invite you to join us for this unique panel discussion entitled ‘Reflections on Sport and Physical Culture in South African Society’. This session will be led by Dr. Francois Cleophas, a Sports and Social Historian based at the...
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Surplus Books, InsideOut and the Institute for African Alternatives invite you to Surplus Radical Books Store for the first in a series of Men’s cafes. This first meeting anticipates International Women’s Day in the same week. The gatherings will provide participants with a platform to share ideas, strategies, and tactics...
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IFAA, in partnership with Surplus and Shack Dwellers International invites you to a public forum entitled ‘How South Africa and Corporates are fueling the crisis in Cabo Delgado (Mozambique)’, presented by Ilham Rawoot of Justica Ambiental/Friends of the Earth Mozambique. For IFAA this will be our first live event/online since...
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What is happening in Ethiopia? Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Crises of Society and State in Africa Jointly organised by the Socialist Students and Workers Network (SSWN), International Socialist Organisation Ghana (ISO Gh) and the Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) In the early 1990s, a wave of democratisation ended dictatorships and led to...
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The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), if successfully implemented, holds the prospect of lifting 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty and boosting the continent’s income by $450 billion by 2035, amongst many other touted benefits. There is a clear global consensus that creating a single, continent-wide market for...
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The Institute for African Alternatives will mark Youth Day by inviting you to attend a public discussion on the critical challenge of Youth Unemployment on Tuesday 15th June 2021 at 3pm. Youth Unemployment is one of South Africa’s most formidable challenges and now even more exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite...
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On Wednesday 28th April 2021, 3 pm The Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) marks the forthcoming Workers’ Day with a Public Forum that draws attention to the impact of Covid-19 on the future of work and social justice. The disruptions created by the pandemic have radically altered the way we see how...
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Topic: Institute for African Alternatives’ COVID 19 AND THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES Time: Mar 31, 2021 03:00 PM Harare, Pretoria Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83863360229?pwd=NVowVEpaYWJHd1FIaSswTk85eGZWQT09 Meeting ID: 838 6336 0229 Passcode: 414155 The Institute for African Alternatives invites you to an online discussion forum on Wednesday 31st March 2021 entitled “Covid-19 and the Creative Industries”. We invited a number...
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The Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) would like to invite you to our public online discussion forum on the issue of Affordable Housing and Spatial Justice, on Tuesday 30th March at 3 pm. Twenty-five years into our democracy, the struggle for affordable housing in urban spaces continues, and it signals one of...
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Featuring speakers: Chwaita Mtsewu, Duma Nqulube and Morris Masutha According to the findings of the Auditor-General, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has incurred R5 billion in irregular expenditure for the 2019/2020 period, while the figure for 2018/2019 is R3.2bn. Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology has described...
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What impact has the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated ‘new normal’ had on the teaching and learning environment? In this IFAA Forum we invite, parents, teachers and students from a cross-section of high schools to reflect on the challenges that they have faced over the last year. Topic: Institute for African...
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Urban farming is not a new phenomenon but it has proliferated rapidly in recent years. This has been driven by advances in technology and global challenges that include food insecurity, energy shortage, urban migration, poverty, unemployment and environmental degradation. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization urban farming is currently...
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Equality in access to education is critical to the socio-economic transformation of our country and a cornerstone of the South African constitution. Yet, since the dawn of democracy, our government has consistently presented budgets that slash funding for schools and universities. It is for this reason that students took to the...
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South Africa’s strong independent media institutions have been credited as one of the great strengths of its 25yr old constitutional democracy. But there have recently been insidious instances of harassment, intimidation, assault and incitement to violence against the media. In this public forum our lead question is whether the independence...
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Our rationale for this event is to bring the growing national discourse on the complex subject of Coloured Identity and Coloured Identity Politics into public focus. The South African population census has, since 1994, continued to categorise a demographic group ‘Coloured’, as distinct from’ Black African’, ‘Asian’ and ‘White.’ While...
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The Institute for African Alternatives invites you to join our online discussion forum: Reflections on Trotsky, on Thursday 29th October 2020, 3pm. Please read the brief and find the webinar link information below: Brief As we mark the 80th anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination we find ourselves in the midst of intense and escalating...
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The new R4-billion River Club Development, which will house the headquarters of Amazon in Africa, has encountered vociferous opposition from several civic organisations, Khoi and San groups, including a 20 000 signed petition. The developers though are pushing ahead with their plans, supported by the First Nations Collective, a breakaway...
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After protests in November 2017 saw the end of Robert Mugabe’s rule with the intervention of the military, there was a rise of optimism of the future for Zimbabwe. Emmerson Mangagwa on his inauguration promised ‘radical economic reforms’. In spite of this, the economic crisis has continued to deepen with...