On March 8, International Women’s Day, IFAA reflects on the perspectives of feminist and women leaders who have fought against colonialism and apartheid for freedom, and continue to date to fight for social, economic and political transformation. Importantly, Ruth First warns that there is a danger of: ‘forgetting or ignoring … Read More
Kudos to our Senior Researcher Hibist Kassa
IFAA would like to congratulate our senior researcher, Dr Hibist Kassa, on the publication of her chapter ‘The Crisis of Social Reproduction in Petty Commodity Production and Large-scale Mining: A Southern Perspective on Gender Inequality’ in the new collection Inequality Studies from the Global South, Routledge (2020). For more information … Read More
Confronting Inequality: The South African Crisis
South Africa’s distorted distribution of wealth is one of the biggest challenges facing the country’s economy, with unemployment sitting at an unsustainable 27.7%. In terms of wealth, the top percentile households hold 70.9% while the bottom 60% holds a mere 7%. 76% of South Africans face an imminent threat of … Read More
Confronting Inequality: Thoughts on Public Accountability and Policy Resonance
Thuli Madonsela, Founder and Chief Patron of Thuma Foundation and former Public Protector, shares her thoughts on South Africa’s inequality problem. It is an absolute honour to be invited to this important conference on Confronting Inequality. The dialogue on inequality is timely as inequality and poverty in our country and … Read More
Presentations from “Confronting Inequality” Conference
On the 28th of September IFAA, with support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy, convened a conference on Confronting Inequality in South Africa. The conference covered the many dimensions of inequality as experienced in South Africa. Presentations were delivered by Dr Pali Lehohla, Dr Neva Makgetla, David Francis, Prof. Ivan Turok, … Read More
“Confronting Inequality”: A report on IFAA Conference
By Michael Nassen Smith, Deputy Director of the Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) publisher of New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy The Institute for African Alternatives recently hosted a conference on “Confronting Inequality”. This is a report back on conference proceedings. We believe that sharing … Read More
Confronting Inequality in South Africa
THIS IS THE BACKGROUND PAPER FOR IFAA’s FORTHCOMING CONFERENCE ON INEQUALITY. THURSDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2017, JOHANNESBURG *This paper will appear in New Agenda Issue 66 “We know from historical experience that if inequality is not addressed through peaceful means and peaceful democratic institutions it’s always potentially a source of violence.” … Read More
South Africa’s Lopsided Economy
By Ben Turok, The author is an economist, former ANC member of parliament and the editor of New Agenda. This article originally appeared in New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy, Issue 66. State capture may have dominated the headlines this past year but the … Read More