The GNU partners need to get their act together

Even those who opposed the GNU formation don’t wish it to fail. There is general good will that needs to be built on by the GNU partners. The GNU partners, however, need to be engaged in ongoing skirmishes around the BELA Act.–something we focus on in our Big Debate section. The same goes for the NHI and the Land Expropriation Act.

The public shows of ”cleaning house” among the GNU partners have hardly been effective. The consequences of this can be dire if not addressed in the short-term.

Perhaps the lowest moment of confidence building was the deadlock over the budget speech. It was a low moment as it suggests a high-level of incoherence among the partnership. Hopefully it is all sorted out by the time the budget is tabled in March.

As a proud nations, we can only hope that these disagreements will not shake the foundations of an already fragile coalition.

Also in this edition of Leadership, we have a strong focus on Africa in our ‘Africa in Focus’ section. Here we speak about Ethiopia as a growing nation and the troubles Africa faces as young mothers continue to struggle for education.

Thank you, as usual, to all our loyal readers. We trust the start 2025 brings you and our nation renewed hope.

Sincerely

Prof JJ Tabane

Pushing for a mentally healthy South African workforce

Dr. Portia Monnapula-Mazabane, who holds a PhD in Psychology, is passionately dedicated to ensuring that the significance of workplace mental health is universally recognized and embraced. She is on a mission to make a lasting impact, raising awareness and fostering environments where mental well-being is a top priority for all.

 The realities of not looking after your mental health in the corporate world are becoming more and more apparent, yet many still do not pay attention to the signs and often face the consequences.

Dr Portia Monnapula-Mazabane, is a Clinical Psychologist and the Founder of PMM-Psychological Services, understands that while pressure has a habit of building up within the workplace, looking after one’s mental health should not come at the expense of a deadline or a spreadsheet.

Therefore, Dr Monnapula-Mazabane believes it is of the utmost importance for organisations to understand this very real threat and use services available to them to protect their workforce.

“Some of the primary factors influencing well-being in the contemporary corporate environment are high stress and burnout, difficulties with work-life balance, job insecurity, the effects of remote work on mental health, and adverse work environments often shaped by ineffective leadership and culture,” Dr Monnapula-Mazabane explains.

“Additionally, many employees face challenges related to workplace discrimination and lack of support for mental health concerns. It is essential for organisations to address these issues by fostering a culture of support, providing access to mental health resources, and promoting work-life balance.”

A changing landscape, but more is needed

Throughout her career, Dr Monnapula-Mazabane has witnessed significant developments in corporate wellness, with companies more aware of how mental health impacts productivity and employee satisfaction.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed many companies to take mental health wellness more seriously and this progress has led to the implementation of various wellness programmes, including stress management workshops, mental health awareness campaigns, and employee assistance programmes.

However, there are still challenges.

“The modern work environment has become more demanding, leading to higher stress levels and burnout. The rise of remote work has also blurred the boundaries between work and personal life, making it difficult for employees to switch off and recharge,” she says.

”Although there have been advancements, mental health stigma still makes employees reluctant to seek help. Employees know services are available but avoid them due to fear of stigma.”

Destigmatisation of mental health issues is crucial in the corporate world as it creates a supportive environment where employees feel comfortable seeking help without fear of judgement or discrimination.

This not only improves individual well-being but also enhances overall productivity and job satisfaction.

“Destigmatisation can be achieved through education and awareness campaigns, open discussions about mental health, and providing access to mental health resources and support,” Dr Monnapula-Mazabane insists.

”Leadership plays a key role in setting the tone for a stigma-free workplace by openly discussing mental health and demonstrating genuine empathy and support for employees facing mental health challenges.”

Dr Monnapula-Mazabane’s journey of assistance

Dr. Monnapula-Mazabane has dedicated a significant part of her career to supporting employees at all levels in managing the impact of mental health in the workplace. Throughout this journey, she has navigated both the challenges and successes involved in fostering a healthy workforce.

One memorable story involves a corporate client who implemented a comprehensive wellness programme after experiencing high employee turnover and low job satisfaction.

Through regular counselling sessions, stress management workshops, and open discussions about mental health, the company saw a significant improvement in employee morale and retention.

“This experience reinforced the importance of a holistic approach to mental wellness and the positive impact it can have on both employees and the organisation,” she recalls.

One of her significant achievements includes a mental health initiative conducted in collaboration with other professionals within a KwaZulu-Natal municipality. This initiative involved providing manager training, counselling, and wellness workshops.

“We received positive feedback which made mention of better employee engagement and a positive workplace culture. Another success followed my guest appearance on a local radio station, where I helped compile a service database for callers, receiving excellent feedback. Additionally, I coached new professionals in establishing their private practices,” she explains.

Having seen the difference her work has made, what is her message to the corporate world when it comes to dealing with mental health issues?

Well, it’s fairly simple: The importance of fostering a healthier, more productive work environment is not only beneficial for employees, but also for the organisation itself.

Making a significant difference

As Dr Monnapula-Mazabane is highly respected within her field, her expertise, knowledge, and opinion matter and have the power to change perceptions; helping many overcome their challenges.

This respect has seen her assist with policy formulation in mental health, while her always-caring approach means that she is able to spread the message far and wide to impact as many people as possible.

“My journey to assisting with policy formulation in mental health at national and global levels began with my active involvement in the mental health sector. By publishing research articles on mental health stigma and coping strategies, I gained significant recognition,” she explains.

“Additionally, I participated in numerous conferences and empowerment workshops, which further established my expertise in this field. My appearances on radio and TV shows to advocate for mental health and provide expert advice also contributed to my growing influence.”

Collaboration with other mental health experts and organisations has also been an important part of Dr Monnapula-Mazabane’s approach, in turn affording her the chance to contribute to comprehensive policy-making processes.

“I am most proud of my contributions to promoting mental health awareness, reducing stigma, and improving access to mental health services. These efforts have made a meaningful impact on both the industry and the public. Being part of initiatives that have tangible benefits for individuals and communities has been incredibly rewarding, and I am honoured to continue this important work,” she says with pride.

The importance of mental health for leaders

The significance of mental health for leaders is paramount, as leaders establish the tone for their organisations and play a critical role in shaping workplace culture.

When leaders prioritise their mental health, they are better positioned to make informed decisions, manage stress efficiently, and support their teams effectively.

By exemplifying healthy behaviours and demonstrating a commitment to mental wellness, leaders can motivate their employees to prioritise their well-being, ultimately fostering a more resilient and productive organisation.

Dr Monnapula-Mazabane believes that prioritising mental health is consistent with ethical leadership principles, as leaders have an ethical obligation to care for their own well-being, as it directly influences the well-being of their employees and the wider community.

“By exemplifying healthy behaviours, leaders set a standard for their teams, encouraging a culture of self-care and mutual support. This strategy not only enhances productivity and job satisfaction but also contributes to the overall ethical and moral integrity of the organisation.

“The importance of mental health for leaders is seen in their capacity to set an example, create a positive and productive work environment, and contribute to the sustained success of their organisations. Focusing on mental health reflects strong leadership qualities and a commitment to comprehensive management,” she concludes.

In response to ‘BELA, last battlefield of the colonial language’

It is time to reduce the animosity on BELA and for all parties to jointly commit to create the conditions where solutions can be found to the pressing problems of access to school spaces that affirm the education and language rights of all in our changing demography, writes Mary Metcalfe.

I am in full agreement with Dirk Hermann, the Chief Executive of Solidarity, with regard to:

• • The unquestioned importance of the value of Afrikaans in our national life;
  
• • Mother-tongue instruction being a critical component of improving the quality of education and ensuring more equitable access to education; and
  
• • The continued dominance of English is inconsistent with the goals of decolonisation.
  

Judge Albie Sachs asserted the value of Afrikaans in the dispute concerning the constitutionality of some provisions of the Gauteng School Education Bill of 1995 in this stirring passage: “The Afrikaans language is one of the cultural treasures of South African national life, widely spoken and deeply implanted, the vehicle of outstanding literature, the bearer of a rich scientific and legal vocabulary and possibly the most creole or ‘rainbow’ of all South African tongues. Its protection and development is therefore the concern not only of its speakers but of the whole South African nation [and]... promoting the rich development [of Afrikaans is] an integral part of the variegated South African national character contemplated by the Constitution.”

Hermann refers to the UNESCO position that ‘Children who receive mother-tongue education have stronger cognitive skills, especially in terms of critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. The higher the school grade, the more these skills are needed’. This is well established in research in South Africa and was most recently confirmed in the 2023 Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMMS) which found that learners who ‘speak the language of the test’ at home out-perform those that do not. This was evident for Grade 6 learners and even more so in Grade 9.

I also agree that the continued dominance of English is inconsistent with the goals of decolonisation, and that much more should be done to promote the use of African languages in our schools—as a first language and as a second language. Moseneke in the Ermelo judgement of 2009 commented that “indigenous languages languish in obscurity and underdevelopment with the result that at high school level, none of these languages have acquired their legitimate roles as effective media of instruction and vehicles for expressing cultural identity. And that perhaps is the collateral irony of this case. Learners whose mother tongue is not English but rather one of our indigenous languages, together with their parents, have made a choice to be taught in a language other than their mother tongue. This occurs even though it is now well settled that, especially in the early years of formal teaching, mother tongue instruction is the foremost and the most effective medium of imparting education”.

Our Bill of Rights is unequivocal that all official languages must enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably. However, Section 29 (2) of our Constitution on the right to education affirms choice of language rather than mother-tongue education: “Everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice in public educational institutions where that education is reasonably practicable. In order to ensure the effective access to, and implementation of, this right, the state must consider all reasonable educational alternatives, including single medium institutions, taking into account: equity; practicability; and the need to redress the results of past racially discriminatory laws and practices.”

The South African School Act (SASA) of 1996 provided for school communities to determine their language policy subject to the Constitution, SASA, and any applicable provincial law. The Norms And Standards For Language Policy In Public Schools published in 1997 recognised that our cultural diversity is a valuable national asset and hence the DBE is tasked “to promote multilingualism, the development of [all] the official languages, and respect of all languages used in the country”. It also acknowledged that “the inherited language-in-education policy in South Africa has been fraught with tensions, contradictions and sensitivities, and underpinned by racial and linguistic discrimination. A number of these discriminatory policies have affected either the access of the learners to the education system or their success within it.”

The Norms and Standards document adopted the principle that “the learning of more than one language should be a general practice and principle in our society... being multilingual should be a defining characteristic of being South African... to counter any particularistic ethnic chauvinism or separatism through mutual understanding”.

To achieve these ideals, the Constitution gives the right of choice of medium of instruction rather than a more limiting right to mother-tongue education. It is the responsibility of the DBE to provide the institutional framework for operationalising language choice in the provision of school places, and in redressing past imbalances in access to teaching and learning in all South African languages.

However, the current practice in the vast majority of our schools replicates the dominance of English as the medium of instruction (MoI). While some African language speaking communities have opted for English from Grade 1 in the local school, the vast majority of these communities have chosen for a dominant local African language to be used as the MoI (which complicates teaching and learning in communities where multiple languages are used in the community), and for English to be learned as an additional language in the Foundation Phase (Grades R-3). However, after Grade 3, all schools which had used an African language until Grade 3 (and I know of no exception to this) switch to English as the MoI. This is not by department prescript but is a parental ‘choice’.

Is this a choice? Other than lip service, have we done enough to provide the necessary learning and teacher support material to make a choice to learn in an African language viable? Have we used evidence-based educational arguments to influence parental choice in this direction? I agree with Hermann that the answer may be a resounding no. And thus, home-language English and Afrikaans speaking learners are privileged to learn in their first language, and the colonial languages continue to dominate. I agree with Hermann’s closing sentence, “Mother-language education benefits education, it benefits our children and the community, and it benefits the country.”

But choice is the constitutional principle—not the principle of mother tongue instruction. This is a consequence of our history where language and culture were used as instruments of ethnic chauvinism and separatism (among other instruments) to divide, dominate, and deepen inequality. The response of the drafters of our Constitution was to affirm the ‘parity of esteem of all official languages’ and to make their equitable treatment a Constitutional principle—but to equally affirm choice of medium of instruction in education.

Hermann is also correct that—shamefully—“historically, the battle to receive education in one’s own language went hand in hand with the Afrikaners’ battle against colonial England. After the Anglo-Boer War, Afrikaners deliberately decided not to send their children to the English government schools. Identity was the price to be paid for English education”.

Which brings us to the Basic Laws Amendment Act (BELA) of 2024.

I acknowledge the historical origins of the passion and anger in Hermann’s statement that “mother-tongue education is part of the soul of Afrikaners. It is part of our historical DNA. For us, attacking our language is a deed of aggression. It has always been a struggle for existence for us. We won the battle against the colonial rulers, and we will do so again, for that is who we are”. But do we need to acknowledge the historical origins of the same emotional impact for the majority of South Africans who hear the historic resonance and ‘deed of aggression’ in the perceived imposition of Afrikaans—or perceived use of Afrikaans to exclude—in the furore around BELA? The memory of the 1976 school uprisings in response to the imposition of Afrikaans, and more broadly to a history of dispossession and marginalisation is emotive for many South Africans and is commemorated as a courageous and significant turning point in our painful past. These two different but deep histories of pain in relation to language domination in this land have inflamed the debate without sufficient acknowledgment of the commonalities of language domination and resistance to this.

I believe that BELA provides guidance for us to overcome the pain of these respective histories and reconcile the tensions in actions which recognise the injustices of our past and affirm that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.

Many assume that BELA (2024) is an entirely new law. It is not. It is an amendment and refinement of existing legislation. This is common practice in law-making as circumstances change and court rulings, and Constitutional Court judgements in particular, deepen understanding of how legal frameworks can more effectively take forward the intentions of the constitution and assist in responding to changing conditions.

The South African Schools Act (SASA) is our base legislation. It was introduced 1996, amended in 2007, and further amended through the BELA of 2011 and its amendments of 2024. These laws have secondary policy and legislation, such as the Admission Policy for Ordinary Schools of 2021, and the Norms and Standards for Language Policy In Public Schools of 1998 both of which are still in force.

Prior to SASA, School Governing Bodies did not exist with meaningful powers in any education department, and no advisory structure of a public school in any of the 17 education departments had powers to determine admission to a school. The powers given to SGB in SASA were an expression of the commitment of government to meaningful democratic participation. As Moseneke has outlined, the ‘overarching design of the Act is that public schools are run by three crucial partners. The national government is represented by the Minister for Education whose primary role is to set uniform norms and standards for public schools. The provincial government acts through the MEC for Education who bears the obligation to establish and provide public schools and, together with the Head of the Provincial Department of Education, exercises executive control over public schools through principals. Parents of the learners and members of the community in which the school is located are represented in the school governing body (SGB) which exercises defined autonomy over some of the domestic affairs of the school’.

It is to be expected that the balance of power between these three parties would be tested and refined in the Courts, and this has indeed been the case in two significant judgements of the Constitutional Court: Moseneke’s Ermelo judgement of 2009, and the Rivonia judgement of 2013. Both judgements are unequivocal regarding the relative powers of the state and the SGB, and both judgements were unsparing in their criticism of provincial departments when they have not acted with due regard to procedural fairness or have failed to implement rigorous planning processes to fulfil the State’s responsibility to plan for all learners to access their constitutional right to a basic education.

The amendments to BELA (2024) were in part necessary firstly to give legal clarity as to the powers of the state and SGB regarding language policy and admission, and secondly to make explicit in law the procedural processes and principles to be followed by the state. These amendments to BELA are directly informed by court judgements.

The Ermelo judgement is an instructive and inspiring read. Key points include:

• • Decisions on the MoI of a public school are not the exclusive preserve of an SGB. The power of the SGB to determine language policy must be exercised subject to the limitations that the Constitution and the Schools Act or any provincial law and must be understood within the broader constitutional scheme to make education progressively available and accessible to everyone, taking into consideration what is fair, practicable, and enhances historical redress. The devolution of power to SGBs is not absolute or impervious to executive intervention when the governing body exercises that power unreasonably and at odds with the constitutional warranties to receive basic education and to be taught in a language of choice.
  
• • Constitutional imperatives on the state include ensuring effective access to the right to be taught in the language of choice; an obligation to ensure that there are enough school places for every child who lives in a province and thus ensuring that public schools admit learners without unfairly discriminating in any way. The state is duty bound to take lawful steps to achieve these constitutional obligations.
  
• • The exclusive needs or interests of the school and its current learners or their parents is not the only relevant consideration in setting a medium of instruction. While the law compels a governing body to promote the best interests of the school and of all learners at the school, a school cannot be seen as a static and insular entity. Good leaders recognise that institutions must adapt and develop. The governing body of a public school must recognise that it is entrusted with a public resource which must be managed not only in the interests of those who happen to be learners and parents at the time but also in the interests of the broader community in which the school is located in an evolving and dynamic society and in the light of the values of our Constitution.
  

The Ermelo school was in 2009 directed to reconsider its language policy because firstly, the school determined its policy with regard only to the interests of its learners and of the school, and without regard for the interest of the community in which the school was located and the needs of other learners. The Court ruled that this approach is not consistent with the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Schools Act. A school is obliged to exercise its power to select a language policy in a manner that considers section 29(2) of the Constitution, section 6(2) of the Schools Act and the norms and standards prescribed by the Minister.

The Rivonia judgement of 2013 confirmed that the head of a provincial department of education maintains ultimate control over the implementation of admissions decisions, and like the Ermelo judgement, any decision to overturn an admission decision must be exercised reasonably and in a procedurally fair manner.

There is nothing in BELA which negates the constitutional right of every child—including Afrikaans-speaking children—to receive education in the official language or languages of choice in public educational institutions where that education is reasonably practicable. I do not agree that BELA threatens this right.

BELA (2024) strengthens procedural fairness considerably, and places obligations on the state to properly resource dual or parallel medium schools where a Head of Department directs a school to adopt more than one language of instruction. And inclusion of the details of these processes means that decisions are reviewable if departments fail to follow the principles and detailed guidelines of BELA. For example, when a Provincial Head directs a public school to adopt more than one language of instruction, he or she must following the detailed consultation prescribed, and must consider: the best interests of the child with an emphasis on equality as provided for in section 9 of the Constitution and equity; the changing number of learners who speak the language of learning and teaching at the public school; the need for effective use of classroom space and resources of the public school; and the language needs, in general, of the broader community in the education district in which the public school is situated. All of these processes and considerations informing the decision are reviewable. BELA (2024) also provides that the Provincial Head must, before the directive is implemented, take all the steps necessary to ensure that the school receives the necessary resources, including educators and the learning and teaching support material necessary for the school to provide adequate tuition in the additional language or languages of instruction. This too is reviewable.

It is time to reduce the animosity on BELA and for all parties to jointly commit to create the conditions where solutions can be found to the pressing problems of access to school spaces that affirm the education and language rights of all in our changing demography. It is also time to take firm action so that all of our languages assume their ‘legitimate roles as effective media of instruction and vehicles for expressing cultural identity’, and for ‘multilingualism to be a defining characteristic of being South African’, and therefore of our education system.

Mary Metcalfe is a Professor of Practice at University of Johannesburg.

BELA, last battlefield of the colonial language

This battle must go beyond language boundaries. This is something that must bind language communities together. Mother-language education benefits education, it benefits our children and the community, and it benefits the country, writes Dr Dirk Hermann.

If the full consequences of the BELA Act play themselves out in the public school system, then 94% of South African children, black and white, who speak an African language, will be taught in English.

This will be a disaster for the wealth of South African languages and an even greater disaster for our children’s school education. BELA will accelerate the momentum towards English.

This is a momentum that swings away from mother-tongue education, which is momentum away from good education. The education battle in South Africa should indeed be one for the sake of mother-tongue education.

The crisis of exclusion in the education system is not exclusion from Afrikaans schools but the exclusion of mother-tongue education. The issue of unequal access to education is unequal access to mother-tongue education. Equal access to English education still results in inequality for all African language speakers.

Ironically, BELA is the fulfilment of the colonial onslaught on all our schools. The decolonisation of the language of schools would have been to embrace mother-tongue education.

The ANC’s embracing of English as the school language is, paradoxically, a mere continuation of the colonial ideal.

Language and culture

Language and culture are in a rhythm with each other. The loss of the valuable wealth of traditional culture in South Africa will be the price paid for English education in the long term.

Education in a language other than your mother tongue kills a piece of a community’s soul. It deprives the community of cultural transfer. This certainly does not apply to Afrikaans only.

A community that does not teach its children in its own language, should not be surprised if its children adopt the culture of the language of instruction and become alienated from the community.

The struggle for mother-tongue education is thus not an Afrikaans struggle, but a struggle of all language communities. However, Afrikaners already have a long battle behind them, fought for the sake of mother-tongue education.

Afrikaners’ battle for education in their own language

For Afrikaners, this battle is not a new one. Historically, the battle to receive education in one’s own language went hand in hand with the Afrikaners’ battle against colonial England.

After the Anglo-Boer War, Afrikaners deliberately decided not to send their children to the English government schools. Identity was the price to be paid for English education. For Afrikaners, that was too expensive a price to pay. When children spoke Afrikaans or Dutch in a government school, they had to wear a sign around their neck, stating: “I’m a donkey”.

It was through their schools that Afrikaners won the final battle after the Anglo-Boer War.

On 13 September 2024, the columnist Willie Spies wrote on Netwerk24 about the remarkable story of the Afrikaners’ response to English colonialism. This took place in a time of total poverty, the consequence of the devastation wrought by the English’s scorched earth policy and the post-war depression.

By using English in schools, the Empire wanted to assimilate young Afrikaner children as subjects of the Crown. Afrikaners responded immediately by establishing their own schools. In 1904, there were 172 such schools, with 6 958 pupils in the Transvaal, and in 1905 there were 228 schools with 9 335 pupils.

Therefore, the growth at that stage was between 30% and 40% per year, which meant that by then a quarter of Afrikaner children were already in these private community schools.

These schools later became part of the public schools system.

In 1920, the first Afrikaans only (not Dutch) school was established—the Afrikaanse Hoërskool Pretoria. It was also called the rebel school for the very reason that it wanted to be Afrikaans only. After that, dozens of Afrikaans schools were established.

Afrikaners had a deep sense of realisation that education lies at the heart of a community and, at the same time, that mother-tongue education is the best form of education.

Ironically, if Afrikaners wanted to compete in the English-speaking world, Afrikaans education was necessary, precisely because it was the best form of education.

Mother-tongue education is part of the soul of Afrikaners. It is part of our historical DNA. For us, attacking our language is a deed of aggression. It has always been a struggle for existence for us. We won the battle against the colonial rulers, and we will do so again, for that is who we are.

South Africa and mother-tongue education

South Africa has not really discovered the power of mother-tongue education yet. It is our country’s undiscovered diamond.

There is an underlying general aspiration towards mother-tongue education, and every now and then positive utterances are made in that direction. A pilot study has already been run in the Eastern Cape. Many children receive mother-tongue education up to Grade 3. After that, they are forced into an English environment with catastrophic consequences.

A child in a deep rural area of KwaZulu-Natal must suddenly be taught in a language he/she can barely speak. That is an injustice.

The former Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, made an announcement that mother-tongue, multilingual education would also be implemented in Grade 4. However, there is a major gap between good intentions and the reality. Mother-tongue education up to Grade 3 and even Grade 4 is not sufficient.

It is only after completing these grades that abstract concepts have to be mastered in science and mathematics. As can be seen in school performance, acquiring abstract concepts in another language is almost impossible.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) confirms this: Children who receive mother-tongue education have stronger cognitive skills, especially in terms of critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. The higher the school grade, the more these skills are needed.

UNESCO also emphasises the need to protect minority languages through mother-tongue education. Given the dominance of English in South Africa, all of South Africa’s indigenous languages are minority languages that must be protected by mother-tongue education.

The fact that the government is not actively promoting mother-tongue education is a constitutional failure in terms of section 6 (2) of the Constitution which imposes a duty on the government to promote indigenous languages.

School education in South Africa will only reach its full potential when single medium Zulu or Xhosa schools are established in rural KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, as provided for in section 29(2) of the Constitution.

This is the best way for knowledge transfer, to master abstract concepts, transfer values and to acquire English in a safe environment to be able to successfully participate in the economy. By building a strong basis in the mother tongue, children can indeed acquire other languages with more ease at a later stage.

This sounds like an impossible ideal, but Afrikaans schools serve as an example that it can be done.

South Africa’s education problem calls for mother-tongue education

South Africa has an education problem. Although there are numerous other variables as well, one of the main reasons for the problem is the absence of mother-tongue education.

According to UNESCO, children who do not receive their education in their mother tongue are more likely not to complete their school careers, or especially fail in the early grades.

According to the 2023 Report of the Centre of Development Enterprise, South Africa is the worst performer in education among low- and middle-income countries.

According to the Equal Education Law Centre, 80% of South African schools are dysfunctional. In South Africa, only 47% of children who start Grade 1 pass matric. The education problem is intense in schools where there is no mother-tongue instruction, especially in rural areas and in traditional areas where children cannot speak English or speak a very poor English.

The latest report from the International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) places South African learners last among 57 participating countries in its recent results. One of the reasons for this is undoubtedly that 90% of learners cannot study these abstract subjects in their mother tongue.

More spending will not solve the problem if the core problem is not solved. The absence of mother-tongue education is no doubt part of the core problem.

There must be a shift in the education debate

The education debate, especially about BELA, is totally misdirected. It is being driven by Panyaza Lesufi’s anti-Afrikaans agenda. He and the Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane treat BELA as their weapon against Afrikaans single-medium schools. They are turning the BELA debate into an Afrikaans debate.

The BELA Act grants powers to the departmental head of education to instruct a school to change the school’s policy. The community is therefore left at the mercy of political ideologues like Lesufi and Chiloane. They are outspoken about what they want to achieve with BELA, a stance that demands resistance from the Afrikaans community.

The BELA Act states that the language needs of the particular education district must be taken into account. The real language need of the education district is not that the 5% Afrikaans schools in the district should become English schools. It is namely that the remaining 95% should also acquire a mother-tongue character. This is the real battle for the sake of our children and for the sake of good education.

The debate needs to shift to the injustice of the current school system that deprives children of mother-tongue education, which also deprives them of more educational formation and quality education.

The argument that Afrikaans is a proxy for white is false. There is not a single exclusively white school in the country. Afrikaans is the most diverse language in the country.

The argument that English is only being introduced to make schools more accessible and diverse is also false. Ten years ago, there were approximately 1 800 Afrikaans schools. Today, there are fewer than 900. Most of these schools have become English-only. English is the dominant language and is quickly becoming the only language. We see this happening in schools and have already seen it at universities. Dual-medium schools are becoming English.

Turning Afrikaans schools into English schools will in no way solve this huge problem in education. It would simply increase the injustice in schools.

How radicals killed the improvement of mother-tongue education

On September 12 and 13, President Ramaphosa had phone conversations with myself and Kallie Kriel of AfriForum regarding the signing of the BELA Bill. The outcome was a three-month period for dialogue.

President Ramaphosa appointed an ANC negotiating team to engage with the Solidarity Movement on BELA. Mother-tongue education became a central theme in the discussions.

On October 31, after weeks and many hours of discussions, the parties agreed, among other things, that a comprehensive process should be followed to improve mother-tongue education, including potential amendments to the BELA Act to better enable mother tongue education in all African languages.

The radicals’ blind aversion to Afrikaans resulted in the draft agreement not being accepted by the ANC leadership. Mother-tongue education paid the price for internal factions and radicals’ demands.

At Nedlac, an agreement was reached between the presidency, the minister of basic education, and Solidarity. A key provision was that Sections 4 and 5 of BELA should not be implemented before a provision enabling mother-tongue education was developed. These recommendations were presented to the president.

However, the radicals reacted so strongly that the Nedlac agreement was not accepted by the president.

The cost was no expansion of mother-tongue education. Children’s education was sacrificed for the sake of radicals’ ideology.

The task team of the Government of National Unity Clearing House Mechanism recommended to the President that Sections 4 and 5 be implemented at a later date and that time be allocated for a national dialogue on mother-tongue education.

The radicals demanded that the entire act be implemented immediately. As a result, the proposal for dialogue on mother tongue-education was dropped.

The radicals’ resistance to a small minority’s claim for mother-tongue education was so toxic that the majority’s legitimate claim to mother-tongue education was lost.

The outcome is English as the sole language of instruction, to the great detriment of children.

The Afrikaans community’s battle against BELA and for mother-tongue education is not only a battle in the interests of Afrikaans. It is a battle for something that would benefit education as a whole.

The Afrikaans community will take hands with other communities, will share best education practices with them and will fight for them. We are on the same side of the battle.

This battle must go beyond language boundaries. This is something that must bind language communities together. Mother-language education benefits education, it benefits our children and the community, and it benefits the country.

Dr Dirk Hermann is the Chief Executive of Solidarity.

The Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act: a transformative step for South African education

The Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act is a bold and transformative piece of legislation designed to address deep-seated inequalities in South Africa’s education system, writes Matome Chiloane

 The BELA Act’s significance extends beyond technical adjustments to existing laws; it is a declaration of intent, a commitment to creating an education system that is inclusive, equitable, and reflective of the country’s democratic values.

As the MEC for Education, I am proud to support this legislation, recognising it as a powerful tool for progress and a step toward fulfilling the dreams of our forebears who envisioned education as a cornerstone for liberation.

The Origins and Objectives of the BELA Act

The BELA Act amends the South African Schools Act of 1996 and the Employment of Educators Act of 1998. It introduces reforms aimed at improving school governance, promoting inclusivity, and safeguarding the rights of learners. Among its most notable features are:

• • Oversight of Admissions Policies: School governing bodies must now align their admissions policies with national guidelines. This ensures that no learner is unfairly excluded based on arbitrary criteria, such as language preferences or geographic location.
  
• • Language Policy Reform: The Act empowers the Department of Basic Education to approve or amend school language policies. This addresses long-standing concerns about the use of language policies to perpetuate exclusion.
  
• • Universal Access to Grade R: By making Grade R compulsory, the Act ensures that all children have access to early childhood education, a critical foundation for lifelong learning.
  
• • Prohibition of Corporal Punishment: Reaffirming its illegality, the Act strengthens measures to create safe and supportive learning environments.
  

Historical Context: Education as a Tool for Liberation

South Africa’s history is one of struggle, resistance, and triumph against oppression. Education played a central role in the fight for freedom, with leaders like Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo emphasising its transformative power.

Mandela’s assertion that “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” resonates deeply in a country where apartheid systematically denied quality education to the majority of its citizens.

Tambo, himself a teacher before becoming a freedom fighter, spoke passionately about the need for equitable access to education. He understood that education was not only a path to personal empowerment but also a means to uplift entire communities.

The BELA Act honours this legacy by seeking to dismantle the barriers that continue to hinder access to quality education.

Language Policy: Balancing Inclusivity and Identity

One of the most contentious aspects of the BELA Act is its reform of language policies. Some critics, particularly those advocating for Afrikaans-medium schools, have framed their opposition as a defence of mother-tongue education.

While mother-tongue instruction is undeniably important for cognitive development and cultural preservation, the resistance to language policy reform often masks an attempt to maintain exclusivity under the guise of cultural protection.

Afrikaans, for example, has a complex history. It is both a symbol of cultural pride for many and a reminder of oppression for others. During apartheid, Afrikaans was imposed as a medium of instruction, sparking protests like the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Today, the challenge is to ensure that no language is used to exclude or marginalise.

The BELA Act promotes multilingualism, recognising all 11 official languages as equally valuable. By doing so, it reflects an African worldview that values diversity and inclusivity.

The Act does not seek to undermine Afrikaans or any other language but rather to ensure that language policies are not used as tools of exclusion.

The Importance of a Global Perspective

While the BELA Act is rooted in addressing South Africa’s unique historical and social context, it also embraces a broader worldview.

Education systems worldwide are grappling with issues of inclusivity, equity, and access. South Africa’s commitment to these principles aligns with global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4, which calls for inclusive and equitable quality education for all.

To remain competitive in an increasingly interconnected world, South African learners must be equipped not only with a strong sense of cultural identity but also with the skills and perspectives needed to engage globally. This means embracing diversity within our borders while fostering a sense of belonging to a larger global community.

The Role of Community and Accountability

Education is not the responsibility of the government alone; it requires a collective effort from communities, parents, educators, and learners themselves.

The BELA Act strengthens governance structures, ensuring greater accountability and transparency. By involving all stakeholders in decision-making processes, it creates a shared sense of responsibility for the success of our schools.

A New Era for South African Education

The BELA Act is more than a piece of legislation; it is a vision for the future. It seeks to address the inequalities of the past while laying the foundation for a more just and inclusive education system.

By reforming admissions and language policies, expanding access to early childhood education, and safeguarding learners’ rights, the Act aligns with the values enshrined in our Constitution and the aspirations of our nation.

As we move forward, it is crucial to remain grounded in our African identity while embracing the opportunities of a globalised world.

The BELA Act is a testament to our commitment to building an education system that serves all South Africans, empowering them to contribute meaningfully to society.

In the words of Nelson Mandela, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” The BELA Act represents a monumental step toward achieving the impossible: an education system that truly reflects the principles of equality, dignity, and justice for all.

Matome Chiloane is the Gauteng MEC of Education, Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation.

Why the fixation with national democratic revolution?

Yacoob Abba Omar explores the spat between the ANC and SACP over the latter’s critique of the Government of National Unity

In the recent quarrel between the ANC and SACP over the latter’s critique of the Government of National Unity (GNU), the term national democratic revolution (NDR) was bandied about like confetti at a wedding. What is the NDR and why does it matter in the relationship between the SACP and ANC?

To appreciate the NDR we have to start way back in history at about the time of the 1848 revolutions, when the Austro-Hungarian and other European empires were breaking up into smaller entities. In that context the national question emerged, referring to the rights of nations to self-determination, which had been suppressed by these empires. This raised other questions, especially for the left: how did such self-determination relate to the question of moving towards socialism?

The late Egyptian intellectual Samir Amin wrote that “the national question, which in the 19th century was primarily that of oppressed European nations, was transferred to the 20th century to Asia and Africa, where it became the colonial question”.

The concept of national democracy emerged as colonies were gaining independence, achieved through a broad alliance of the widest range of forces opposed to colonial rule. National democracy, for Marxists, represented a transitory point in the journey to socialism.

Putting it at its simplest, this is what led to the concept of national democratic revolutions, meant to depict the liberation of a population so that it could go through the stage of national liberation before moving to the next stage, namely socialism. It was contrasted with the bourgeois democratic revolutions, which maintained the capitalist structure within a democracy.

For the longest time revolutionaries in SA debated how to relate the struggle against capitalism to the struggle against white rule. The approaches differed on how white rule was seen. The SACP and ANC saw SA as a case of colonialism of a special type (having its own acronym, CST); special because the colonial powers resided in the same territory as the colonised. This meant the aim of the struggle was to achieve political liberation, which could lay the basis for advancing to the next stage, a socialist future.

On the other hand, as argued by some pan Africanists, Marxists and proponents of black consciousness, SA was a case of racial capitalism and that the struggle should aim to move directly to a socialist state.

This debate came to the fore again when SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila argued last year that “the problem in the GNU lies in one critical issue: the prioritisation and inclusion, above all else, of the right-wing, neoliberal, white-led DA in a country whose population is overwhelmingly African and black”.

He argued that such a move represents a “form of recolonisation” and that ”bold and radical shifts in policy is needed to strengthen our NDR”. At the same time the SACP announced its intention to go it alone in the 2026-27 local government elections.

That stung the ANC. In what some observers described as a Christmas gift to the SACP, on December 21 Joel Netshitenzhe argued that the timing of the SACP’s decision to contest elections alone could lead to the weakening of both the ANC and the SACP and, by extension, the NDR and the SACP’s pursuit of socialism.

Speaking as leader of the ANC at the party’s 113th founding anniversary, President Cyril Ramaphosa invoked the NDR 17 times. He assured party faithful that the ”formation of the GNU is a tactical decision to pursue the NDR under new conditions occasioned by the electoral setback” the ANC had suffered in the 2024 elections.

And now you too can take part in dinner conversations about the GNU without mixing your NDRs for your CSTs. And you would not be politically incorrect if you argue, as I do, that the 1996 constitution and Bill of Rights provides a sufficient framework for the pursuit of a truly radical agenda: the deepening of our democracy and the safeguarding of our citizens’ socioeconomic rights.

Yacoob Abba Omar is director of operations at the Mapungubwe Institute.

Mpilo Technologies: changing the digital landscape

Leadership sat down with Denzil Fillis, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Mpilo Technologies, a black-owned and emerging company, about where the world is going in terms of the rapidly evolving digital landscape

Mpilo Technologies is a leading South African Cloud First and Cloud Native Multi-Cloud Solutions Provider, dedicated to empowering enterprises with cutting-edge cloud strategies and technologies

They specialise in delivering seamless multi-cloud solutions that optimise performance, enhance security, and reduce costs. By leveraging the best of AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Huawei, and other leading platforms, they ensure that your business can innovate faster and respond to market demands with unprecedented agility.

Their expert team of Cloud architects and engineers guide you through every step of your cloud journey — from the initial strategy and migration to ongoing management and optimisation.

With their comprehensive suite of services, including setting up of your world class Cloud Centre Of Excellence (CCOE), DevSecOps, Containerization, and Multi eXperience App Development through their world class Multi eXperience App Development Platform (MXDP)–VoltMX, they assist you to unlock the full potential of the cloud, driving digital transformation and achieving business excellence.

Technology’s influence on the world around us is increasing every day. According to Fillis, businesses need to be agile, scalable, and have resilient IT infrastructure to remain competitive.

Impact

In South Africa, business success is measured by more than just financial performance—it is about impact. In a country where unemployment remains high, companies have the potential to transform not just individuals but entire families and communities.

With this vision in mind, Mpilo Technologies launched the ”Unearthing Greatness in Unexpected Places” program, designed to give people with no prior digital experience an opportunity to build careers in the technology sector.

“We give opportunities to people with no prior experience in the Digital Transformation space. We have given opportunities to people from all walks of life—from waitresses, security guards, and baristas to newly graduated high school students,” explains CEO Fillis.

In this programme, Fillis explains, “attitude and a commitment to customer service are valued just as much as technical skills. The impact of this initiative is already visible—more than 200 jobs have been created, with over 20 employees emerging directly from the program. The goal is to expand this number to 3 000 employees over the next five years.”

However, Mpilo Technologies’ contributions extend far beyond job creation. The company has also played a pioneering role in the tech landscape of South Africa and Mauritius.

“Prior to starting Mpilo Technologies, I brought an Omni-Channel Application Development Platform called Kony to South Africa. At the time, Kony was a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms. We were named the first and only Kony partner on the African continent. We actively built our technical capabilities on the platform and soon became technical experts,” shared Fillis.

“In 2019, Temenos, the world’s largest provider of banking software–with over 3000 global banking clients, acquired Kony for its digital banking capabilities. This led Mpilo Technologies to become a Temenos partner, focusing on implementing digital banking solutions across the Temenos ecosystem.

To date, we can proudly state that we are one of the few—if not the only—tech companies in Africa implementing end-to-end, large-scale digital banking projects in South Africa and Mauritius,” Fillis states, proudly.

Despite these milestones, his proudest achievement remains the ”Unearthing Greatness in Unexpected Places” program.

“While I am exceptionally proud of the company’s achievements—being the first Temenos partner on the African continent, implementing large-scale digital banking projects, and growing during COVID-19 rather than simply surviving—my biggest achievement is this program.

So, to answer your question, my achievements are named Calib Rooskrantz, Boni Soldati, Dumisani Mokgetsi, and David Molapo—some of many whose lives have been transformed because of MpiloTech.”

For Mpilo Technologies, success is not just about technology—it is about changing lives, empowering communities, and building a brighter future for South Africa’s digital economy.

Challenges

The 2023/24 period proved to be the most challenging in Mpilo Technologies’ journey, marked by a transition in scale.

“During this period we transitioned from a small to a medium sized business with our revenues reaching close to R100m per annum.”

Along with rapid growth came a number of hurdles including compliance, organisational change, staff challenges and managing cash flow all the while dealing with large scale projects and clients and managing public relations and perception became critical.

In order to remain compliant, the company had to navigate the intricacies of BEE compliance as the company moved from being an Exempted Micro Enterprise (EME).

Fillis explains, “For the bulk of our time, Mpilo Technologies existed as either an EME or QSE and we managed our BEE Status through an Affidavit. Once we reached the generic level, we had to go through an entire BEE audit and found out the harsh realisation of the onerous requirements that have to be in place to maintain a BEE Level Status despite being a 100% Black owned company.”

This growth also necessitated a shift from a founder-driven company to a more structured corporate entity and the establishment of a leadership team.

“Once we got into the ‘Big League’ by winning significantly large projects, we were elevated into a medium sized company. Suddenly with this growth I was not able to manage everything myself as I had been able to do in the past. I was confronted with having to hastily put in place Executive and Management Teams to manage these projects as well as some aspects of the company.”

This was an exercise of initially prioritising technical expertise over leadership experience, and ultimately a learning curve which resulted in some setbacks. Taking heed of the lesson and recognising the necessity of a strong leadership team, Mpilo Technologies has since placed more focus on leadership development and strategic hiring in order to strengthen its executive and management teams.

An ongoing and well documented hurdle faced by Mpilo Technologies, as with many other companies, is the perception around black-owned software development companies in South Africa.

“There is an unfounded perception in South Africa that Black Software Development companies are hard to come by and secondly that we are unable to deliver on enterprise grade mission critical software projects. As such, projects have to be managed very carefully and mechanisms must be put in place to counter when such sentiment that arises.”

While Mpilo Technologies has proven its capabilities, managing perceptions remains a challenge. Mpilo Technologies has historically had a focus on the financial services sector, now, after the growth and challenges seen in 2023/24, the company is setting its sights on new frontiers. The company’s evolution into a Cloud-First, Cloud-Native, and Cloud-Agnostic organisation has opened doors into other sectors. Through its partnership with AWS, Mpilo Technologies is making significant inroads into EdTech and expanding their offerings to include Project Management, Best Practice and Architecture consulting practices.

Beyond South Africa, Mpilo Technologies has ambitious plans for expansion across the African continent, “We also have major plans to expand into the rest of Africa. We will soon be incorporating Mpilo Technologies Africa together with a partner in Tanzania and hope to infiltrate East Africa as our initial expansion into the rest of Africa.”

Advocating for transformation

The South African IT sector is poised for significant growth, with the country’s cloud market expected to reach R113 billion by 2028. This growth, along with Digital Banking and Bespoke Multi eXperience App Development, offer exciting prospects for Mpilo Technologies, but not without challenges–opportunities for emerging black owned companies remain limited. Fillis advocates for greater inclusivity, urging large enterprises to support black-owned tech companies with initiatives such as removing technical blockers, favourable payment terms and access to funding and mentorship.

By fostering a more inclusive industry, South Africa’s tech sector can unlock untapped potential, drive innovation, and contribute to broader economic transformation. For Mpilo Technologies, the future is not just about growth—it is also about ensuring that more Black-owned businesses have the opportunity to thrive in the digital era.

Mentorship

For Fillis, mentorship has been a defining force in his career. From an inspirational university lecturer who encouraged his love for mathematics, to a seasoned entrepreneur who guided him into the world of software development, mentorship has played an invaluable role in shaping his leadership.

“I have the had the benefit of having two amazing mentors that has shaped my life into what it is today. My first mentor was my first year Math lecturer (Larry Kannemeyer) at the University of the Western Cape. Having not had the best school career I entered a Bachelor of Science degree on a shaky ground having scored a E for math in my matric finals. Larry’s enthusiasm for teaching math to especially people from disadvantaged communities struck a chord with me. It ignited a newfound appreciation for the subject, laying the foundation for my future in technology”

My second mentor played an equally important role in my technical and subsequent business career. As a fresh university graduate looking for a job, my mother reached out to a childhood friend who happened to have started a software company in Joburg. I then proceeded to move from the dusty streets of Kimberley to Johannesburg in search of pursuing a career in tech.”

Professional networks have also been instrumental in Mpilo Technologies’ success. Fillis has spent his entire career building his reputation as a technical expert in the software development space and in so doing, has built a network of professional relationships. As the company expands its reach, these foundational relationships continue to drive its growth and influence in the tech industry.

“Building a network within the Banking and Insurance technology sectors has been one of the most valuable assets in my arsenal and I have tried to take advantage of it to the max”, said Fillis.

Leadership

Leadership at Mpilo Technologies has been an evolving journey. Founder and CEO, Fillis reflects on how his leadership style has transformed over the years. Initially adopting a domineering approach, he soon realized that a more inclusive, trust-based leadership model was essential for sustainable growth. This shift has empowered his team to take ownership of their roles, fostering a culture of accountability and innovation. A key milestone in this evolution is the appointment of Motsholane Sebola as Deputy CEO—a strategic move to strengthen operational leadership as the company marks its 10-year anniversary.

“As Mpilo Technologies approaches our 10 year anniversary I have made some radical changes by promoting Motsholane Sebola who has been with the company for 6 years to become the Deputy CEO with the view of him ultimately taking over the reins from an operational perspective.”

Fillis says: “Innovation is the foundation not only of my leadership but is also the bedrock on which Mpilo Technologies is founded. In 2012 I discovered what was then called a Omni Channel Mobile Application Development from a little known company called Kony in the US. As a I was very impressed with the technology and I then proceeded to become a partner with Kony, the first in Africa. This leading edge technology was way ahead of its time in South Africa and I struggled to sell the tech. At the time South Africa was considered a laggard in terms of new tech adoption but my belief in the tech remained and I put a lot of effort into driving adoption in the country.”

Today, innovation remains the heartbeat of Mpilo Technologies. The company has positioned itself as a trusted and sought after partner for enterprises seeking to modernize their digital infrastructure through cloud computing, multi-experience app development, and digital banking solutions.

Looking ahead, Mpilo Technologies has set an ambitious vision and goal—to create 10,000 jobs in the digital transformation space and help bridge the digital divide in Africa through its ”Unearthing Greatness in Unexpected Places” initiative. With planned expansions into Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, the company is on track to becoming the continent’s leading Cloud, Multi-Experience App Development, and Digital Banking implementation firm.

Despite the challenges along the way, resilience, innovation, and visionary leadership continue to define Mpilo Technologies’ journey. As the company enters its next chapter, it remains committed to shaping the future of technology and transforming businesses across Africa and beyond.

Twenty years of excellence in the Eastern Cape

The Walter Sisulu University is in a very good space thanks to the hard work and dedication of Vice Chancellor Professor Rushiella Songca. Ralph Staniforth sat down with the university’s leader to discuss the 20th birthday of the tertiary institution, why the logo is being changed, the impact a new facility will have on sustained growth, and why leading such a large entity requires collaboration and vision.

 The Walter Sisulu University (WSU) is entering the new academic year in a position of remarkable strength and operational readiness.

Having successfully completed comprehensive infrastructure and systems upgrades across its campuses, the university can now operate at full capacity with robust, integrated systems supporting its academic mission.

This has led to a significant shift in WSU’s standing among prospective students. The university now ranks as the fourth highest institution nationally in terms of received applications, marking a transformative change in its institutional reputation.

This represents a dramatic evolution from just four years ago when WSU faced challenges meeting enrolment quotas and were often considered a fallback option for students who couldn’t secure places at other universities.

Today, WSU has clearly established itself as a first-choice university for many prospective students. For the 2025 academic year, WSU has established several strategic priorities that will significantly advance the academic excellence and institutional effectiveness of the university.

These priorities are in large part thanks to Vice Chancellor Professor Rushiella Songca, who sees the primary focus areas encompassing both operational transformation and academic advancement.

”A cornerstone priority is the completion of our Rationalisation and Consolidation (R&C) Project. In alignment with our overarching goals of establishing a robust academic foundation and maintaining consistently high-quality programmes, we embarked on this ambitious project which has been implemented in two strategic phases. The first phase was successfully completed in December 2023, laying the groundwork for institutional transformation. The second phase, initiated in December 2024, is currently being finalised,” she explains.

This comprehensive project has already achieved significant structural improvements through the strategic consolidation of faculties, reducing them from twelve to seven, while facilitating the careful amalgamation of departments and strategic reassignment of programmes across campuses.

These programme relocations have been meticulously aligned with the new faculty structure, ensuring a cohesive and streamlined academic framework. This transformation is fundamental to unifying WSU’s academic and administrative cores into an integrated, efficient, and effective institutional engine.

Realising this vision has required proactive institutional changes that are already showing positive results in WSU’s operational efficiency.

”We are implementing several critical strategic initiatives. First, we are advancing comprehensive digitalisation across all university operations to modernise our systems and improve service delivery. This digital transformation will enhance both administrative efficiency and the learning experience for our students,” Prof Songca continues.

”Professional development is another crucial focus area, particularly in accelerating Masters and Doctoral degree completions among our staff. This initiative will strengthen our academic capacity and contribute to our research capabilities.

”We are also launching a comprehensive rebranding initiative to better reflect WSU’s evolution and growing prominence in the higher education landscape. Additionally, as we reach the midpoint of our Vision 2030 journey, we find ourselves at a crucial juncture that demands both reflection and forward-thinking. This milestone presents an opportune moment to assess our progress and recalibrate our approach for the road ahead; hence, we are conducting a mid-term review of our Vision 2030 strategic plan to ensure we remain aligned with our long-term objectives while adapting to emerging opportunities and challenges.”

Strengthening the academic project remains at the core of WSU’s mission. The university is particularly focused on enhancing its research output through increased publication in accredited journals and expanding community engagement initiatives. These efforts will reinforce WSU’s position as a centre of academic excellence and community development.

”Through these strategic goals, we aim to further establish WSU as a leading institution that combines academic rigor with meaningful societal impact, while preparing our students for success in an increasingly competitive global environment,” she adds.

Two decades of excellence

2025 marks the 20th birthday of the university. Prof Songca sums up the journey of WSU as one of ‘resilience’, with said resilience manifesting in multiple ways; from successfully navigating the complex challenges of WSU’s initial merger to establishing itself as a vital comprehensive university serving the Eastern Cape.

That same resilience is evident in how WSU has consistently delivered on its educational mandate despite significant resource constraints and operational hurdles; transforming from a university that struggled with constant student protests, under-utilisation of funding, debilitating infrastructure challenges, and low staff morale to an institution that champions academic excellence in teaching and learning, research, and community engagement.

”This resilience extends beyond mere survival—it’s about continuous improvement and transformation. We’ve successfully moved from fragmented systems to implementing integrated, efficient operations through our R&C project. Our medical school now ranks among the country’s best, demonstrating that excellence can thrive even in challenging circumstances,” she says with a sense of pride.

”Despite earlier limitations, we’ve maintained and strengthened our commitment to rural development and social transformation. We’ve not only persevered through difficulties but have emerged stronger, more focused, and better equipped to serve our communities and shape the future of higher education in South Africa. Where others might have seen insurmountable challenges, WSU found innovative solutions.”

Over the two decades, WSU has gained invaluable insights that have shaped its development and future direction. These lessons span multiple dimensions of university management and academic excellence.

One of the most crucial lessons, Prof Songca explains, has been in resource optimisation.

”As the current administration, we’ve come to deeply appreciate the importance of strategic resource allocation, particularly given our context of limited resources. Our journey in infrastructure development perfectly illustrates this learning: in January 2021, we were among the worst-performing institutions in infrastructure grant spending. However, through rigorous implementation of renovation projects initiated in 2021 as part of Vision 2030, we’ve achieved a remarkable turnaround. We have developed new infrastructure, refurbished existing facilities, and renovated both office spaces and student residences to ensure optimal working and teaching and learning environments,” she states.

”As things stand, we are now ranked among the top 10 performing institutions in infrastructure grant spending, and as of March 2023, WSU proudly stands as the second-best performing institution nationally in this regard. This transformation demonstrates our learning about sustainable financial management and the importance of using funding specifically for its intended projects.”

In terms of academic evolution, Prof Songca says WSU has learned several fundamental lessons that have reshaped its educational approach.

The necessity of responsive curriculum development has become increasingly clear. As a result, WSU has learned that curricula must be dynamic and forward-looking, and regularly updated to incorporate emerging industry trends, technological advances, and societal challenges. This responsiveness ensures graduates are equipped with relevant skills and knowledge that meet both current and future workplace demands.

”We’ve gained profound insights into balancing academic excellence with accessibility. As a gateway institution serving many first-generation university students, we’ve learned to maintain rigorous academic standards while providing robust support systems. This includes implementing bridging programmes, strengthening academic development initiatives, and creating inclusive learning environments that acknowledge diverse educational backgrounds while maintaining high academic standards,” she avers.

The integration of technology in teaching, learning, and research has emerged as a critical cornerstone of modern education. As such, WSU has learned to embrace digital transformation across all academic activities, from implementing learning management systems and digital libraries to ensuring smart classrooms are in place to enhance both the teaching and learning experiences of staff members and students.

Community partnerships have also proven to be an indispensable element of WSU’s success, and the lessons learned in this area have been transformative.

”We’ve discovered that meaningful community engagement goes far beyond traditional outreach—it requires deep, sustained relationships with local governments, businesses, schools, healthcare facilities, and civil society organisations. These partnerships have evolved into dynamic two-way relationships that enrich both our academic programmes and our partners’ capabilities,” Prof Songca adds.

”This symbiotic relationship has been particularly important in our rural development initiatives in the Eastern Cape, where we’ve learned to combine academic expertise with local knowledge to address community challenges effectively.”

An example of this is WSU’s groundbreaking partnership between the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Eastern Cape Department of Health, which was established in November 2023. This collaboration has led to the development of a Rural Clinical School at St Elizabeth Hospital in Lusikisiki, addressing critical healthcare challenges in the Eastern Cape.

A new logo brings a new perception

Branding is a critical element in shaping how an organisation is perceived by its stakeholders, including students, staff, alumni, and the broader public.

A strong and well-managed brand creates trust, loyalty, and recognition, which are essential for building a positive reputation and maintaining relevance.

Therefore, the decision to change WSU’s logo—which it plans to launch this year—and the wider rebranding of the institution is not merely about updating its visual identity—it’s a strategic move that reflects the broader institutional transformation.

”This change emerges as a natural progression following our comprehensive R&C project, which fundamentally reshaped our university’s structure and operations. The timing of our logo change carries special significance, as it aligns with two critical moments in WSU’s history; our emergence as a truly unified institution following successful structural integration, and our celebration of 20 years as a university,” Prof Songca states.

”This convergence of our institutional maturation and our milestone anniversary makes this the perfect moment for refreshing our visual identity. This rebranding is a crucial element in positioning WSU both nationally and internationally. In today’s competitive higher education landscape, a strong, contemporary visual identity is essential for institutional recognition and reputation building.”

Through its new logo, WSU aims to communicate several key messages about the university’s identity and aspirations. First and foremost, for Prof Songca, she wants it to symbolise unity and integration.

”While our current visual identity reflects our merged past, the new logo will represent a fully integrated institution that speaks with one voice and moves with singular purpose. We envision stakeholders immediately recognising WSU as a cohesive, well-coordinated university system,” she says.

The new design will communicate institutional maturity, reflecting WSU’s evolution from a merged institution to an established comprehensive university. This maturity is evident in everything the university does; from its academic offerings to operational efficiency.

In its design elements, the new logo will emphasise WSU’s commitment to innovation while honouring its legacy.

”It must strike a careful balance between modern aesthetics and traditional values, symbolising how WSU embraces contemporary educational approaches while remaining true to our founding principles and the legacy of Walter Sisulu.

This duality is crucial—we want to be seen as forward-thinking and innovative while maintaining our strong connection to our heritage and values,” she adds.

A new facility to drive learning

The re-imagined Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment, and Information Technology facility in East London represents a significant leap forward in WSU’s capability to deliver cutting-edge education and research. This state-of-the-art complex has been designed to transform WSU’s engineering education and research capabilities.

The facility will feature advanced infrastructure that sets new standards for engineering education in the region. WSU is incorporating state-of-the-art laboratories equipped with the latest technology, environmentally sustainable design features, and smart classrooms and lecture theatres that will enhance the learning experience. The simulation labs will provide students with hands-on experience in real-world engineering scenarios, bridging the gap between theory and practice.

What makes this development particularly exciting is its strategic location. The facility’s proximity to East London’s industrial areas creates unprecedented opportunities for industry partnerships and collaboration. This location advantage will enable WSU to forge stronger connections with local businesses and industries, facilitating practical training, research partnerships, and employment opportunities for graduates.

”The enhanced programme delivery capacity will allow us to expand our course offerings and accommodate more students in engineering disciplines. The improved research capabilities, supported by modern laboratories and equipment, will enable our faculty and students to engage in more sophisticated research projects and contribute to technological innovation in the region,” Prof Songca explains.

”One of our key focus areas will be the development of robust exchange programmes for both staff and students. We have a deliberate strategy to grow our engineering faculty into one of the best in the country, and international academic exchanges will be crucial to this vision. These exchanges will expose our community to global best practices and foster international collaboration in research and innovation.”

The facility’s design also incorporates spaces specifically created for intellectual discourse and exchange. These areas will host industry seminars, academic conferences, and collaborative research discussions, making the faculty a hub for engineering innovation and knowledge sharing in the Eastern Cape.

Through this new facility, Prof Songca believes that WSU is not just building infrastructure, ”we’re creating an ecosystem that will nurture the next generation of engineers, IT professionals, and built environment specialists while contributing to regional industrial development and technological advancement”.

For 2025, Prof Songca and her team have set ambitious yet achievable goals for the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment, and Information Technology that build upon existing strengths and strategic advantages.

In terms of academic excellence, the focus is on innovative curriculum development that responds directly to industry needs and emerging technologies. This includes expanding programmes to address crucial areas such as renewable energy engineering, smart cities, cybersecurity, and data science. A key priority is maintaining accreditation from professional bodies like the Engineering Council of South Africa, which will enhance graduates’ employability and WSU’s credibility.

Research and innovation form another crucial pillar of the goals for 2025. WSU is intensifying its focus on producing high-impact research that addresses real-world challenges, particularly those facing the Eastern Cape region.

”We’re also establishing mechanisms to support technology transfer and innovation, including initiatives to nurture student and faculty-led start-ups,” she adds.

Industry collaboration is another key aspect of the vision for the faculty.

”We’re strategically leveraging our location in East London’s industrial area to build strong partnerships with key industries. These partnerships will create opportunities for internships, joint research projects, and practical industry experience for our students. We’re also expanding our international collaborations to enhance knowledge exchange and global exposure for both students and staff,” Prof Songca explains.

”I believe our faculty’s multidisciplinary approach sets us apart. The integration of engineering, built environment, and IT creates unique opportunities for innovation and cross-disciplinary solutions. Our strategic location in the Eastern Cape positions us perfectly to address regional development challenges while providing our students with direct exposure to real-world projects.

”Our commitment to community engagement is another significant strength. We’re designing our programmes and research initiatives to directly contribute to regional development, particularly in sustainable infrastructure and technology solutions. This aligns perfectly with WSU’s broader mission of driving societal transformation.”

Leading from the front

When asked to describe her leadership, Prof Songca avered that she is a ”visionary yet deeply collaborative”.

She firmly believes that while having a clear vision is essential, achieving ambitious goals is only possible through collective effort and by creating an environment that nurtures innovation and creativity.

One of her core leadership principles is the genuine appreciation of dissenting voices. She’s learned that the best solutions often emerge from constructive disagreement and diverse perspectives. Rather than seeking unanimous agreement, she encourages robust dialogue and values different viewpoints.

”This approach has proven that true collegiality and inclusivity are achieved not by suppressing differences, but by creating space for them to be expressed and considered thoughtfully,” she says.

”At the same time, I maintain unwavering standards when it comes to hard work and excellence. I believe that quality should never be compromised, and I set high expectations—both for myself and my teams. However, these high standards are always coupled with the support and resources needed to achieve them.”

This balanced approach—combining visionary leadership with collaborative execution, embracing diverse perspectives while maintaining high standards—has therefore been instrumental in driving institutional transformation and achieving sustainable results.

When it comes to mentoring, Prof Songca believes it’s absolutely crucial for both individual and institutional growth, as it’s one of the most effective ways to transfer knowledge, build leadership capacity, and ensure continuity in any organisation.

Mentoring, as a practice, creates a vital bridge between experience and potential, allowing people in positions such as Prof Songca to nurture talent while preserving institutional knowledge.

”In my career, I’ve had the privilege of experiencing mentoring from both sides. As a mentee, I’ve benefited greatly from the guidance of several experienced leaders who helped shape my understanding of academic leadership and institutional management. Their mentorship taught me valuable lessons about navigating complex challenges, making strategic decisions, and leading with both vision and empathy,” Prof Songca says.

”As a mentor myself, I’ve made it a priority to invest time in developing emerging leaders within our institution. I believe effective mentoring goes beyond just sharing knowledge—it’s about creating opportunities for growth, providing constructive feedback, and helping mentees develop their own leadership style.

”I’m particularly passionate about structured mentoring programmes that create pathways for career development. At WSU, we’re working to strengthen our mentoring culture, especially in areas like research development and academic leadership. We see mentoring as a strategic tool for capacity building and succession planning.”

A proud leader with big ambitions

Prof Songca’s personal goals for this year align closely with WSU’s transformative journey. First and foremost, she is committed to seeing through the successful completion of WSU’s R&C project. This is not just an institutional goal but a personal mission for Prof Songca, as it represents the culmination of efforts to build a more integrated and efficient university.

Another key personal goal is to strengthen WSU’s leadership pipeline. Prof Songca continues to identify and nurture emerging leaders within WSU, creating opportunities for them to grow and take on increasingly significant responsibilities. This includes mentoring promising staff members and establishing structured development programmes for future university leaders.

”I’m also focused on fostering a culture of innovation and excellence across all our operations. This means personally championing new initiatives, encouraging creative problem-solving, and ensuring that we maintain high standards in everything we do. It is important to lead by example in promoting both academic excellence and operational efficiency,” she explains.

”Another crucial personal goal is to further strengthen WSU’s external partnerships and relationships. I plan to actively engage with industry leaders, community stakeholders, and other educational institutions to create more opportunities for collaboration and growth, this is my focus in 2025 and the coming year.”

Prof Songca adds that she is committed to ensuring that WSU’s 20th anniversary year becomes a powerful launching pad for the next phase of the university’s development. This entails not only celebrating achievements but also using this milestone to set ambitious new targets for future growth and impact.

In closing, Prof Songca highlighted WSU’s remarkable institutional growth trajectory.

”Our academic capacity has strengthened significantly, as evidenced by our staff qualifications—doctoral staff increased from 175 to 284, and master’s degree holders from 357 to 428 between 2020 and 2024. This brings our total postgraduate-qualified staff from 532 to 712, representing substantial growth in our academic expertise.

”Our research profile has also shown impressive development. NRF-rated researchers have increased nearly fourfold, from four during the 2019/2020 cycle to 41 for the 2024 cycle. Research outputs increased from 2019 with 95.2 overall institutional units and in 2022 we were at 331.8 overall institutional units.

”Looking ahead, we’ve strengthened our academic leadership through the appointments of DVCs for Teaching and Learning and for Research and Innovation. These strategic appointments will drive further improvements in programme quality and student success rates. We’re positioning ourselves not just for growth in numbers, but for enhanced quality and impact across all our academic activities,” she concludes.

SAFTU on the second coming of Donald Trump

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) unpack critical aspects of Donald Trump’s ideology and record that demand urgent attention from progressive forces worldwide

 The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) expresses deep concern over Donald Trump’s return to the global political stage. This development represents a continuation of dangerous trends in international politics, marked by narrow nationalism, unilateralism, xenophobia, protectionism and the resurgence of right-wing ideologies that exacerbate global inequality, undermine multilateralism, and jeopardise the fight against climate change.

Trump and Ultra-Nationalism

Donald Trump’s rhetoric and policies have consistently championed narrow and ultra-nationalist ideals. From his campaign slogans like “America First” to policies that prioritised the United States’ perceived self-interest at the expense of international solidarity, Trump has sought to isolate the U.S. from the global community. His approach mirrors the rise of nationalist movements in Europe, where right-wing leaders have advanced xenophobic, anti-migrant, patriarchal and homophobic agendas, blaming marginalised groups for societal challenges. Trump’s speeches have echoed these divisive themes, amplifying fear and division while stoking economic protectionism that alienates allies and partners.

This kind of old-fashioned nationalism has emboldened similarly regressive leaders globally, including figures like Jacob Zuma in South Africa, Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, King Mswati III in eSwatini, and even the late Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Many of these leaders have histories of championing homophobic statements, laws and policies, suppressing LGBTQ+ rights, and scapegoating queer communities as part of their reactionary ideologies. In Uganda, Museveni’s regime passed draconian anti-LGBTQ+ laws inspired by a climate of intolerance fuelled by both local and international evangelical influence. Similarly, King Mswati’s regime in eSwatini continues to uphold discriminatory practices, exacerbating the marginalisation of LGBTQ+ people.

Trump’s global influence has further energised dangerously populist evangelical movements in Brazil and other countries, where homophobia is being weaponised as a political tool to advance exclusionary agendas. These movements, which often align themselves with Trump’s rhetoric and policies, deepen the culture of hatred and intolerance, driving a wedge between communities and undoing years of progress in the fight for human rights and equality.

Contradictions in Foreign Policy: Ukraine, Israel, and “Peacemaker” Posturing

Trump’s foreign policy has been riddled with contradictions. On the one hand, he has offered unwavering support to Israel, endorsing its expansionist policies in occupied territories while simultaneously portraying himself as a broker of peace in the Middle East. His administration’s moves, such as recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and promoting its land grab of the Golan Heights, escalated tensions and undermined the prospects for a just and equitable resolution to the Palestinian question.

Regarding Ukraine, Trump’s historical ambivalence undermined global solidarity against aggression. On the one hand, he first questioned NATO’s existence. Then he insisted that its member states raise their war budgets to contribute to that body’s expansion—ignoring the broken promises made by Western leaders in the early 1990s not to increase membership beyond the German borders, which was a factor in Russia’s invasion. Then Trump wavered in his support for the Ukrainian government and leveraged U.S. military aid as a bargaining chip in what is likely to be the ongoing illegal occupation of the eastern and southern parts of the country by Russia. Trump has not ‘ruled out’ military force in his dangerous threats that the U.S. will retake the Panama Canal (which it held from 1903 to 1979) and occupy Greenland (currently under Danish rule). Despite these reflections of raw imperial ambition, Trump continues to posture as a worldwide peacemaker. This characterisation collapses under scrutiny when viewed against his consistent undermining of multilateral institutions and peace processes.

Obsession with China and Superpower Protectionism

Trump’s obsession with China epitomises his approach to global economic competition. Through a series of aggressive tariffs, accusations, and trade wars, he framed China as the singular threat to American economic supremacy. This narrow protectionism reflects the behaviour of a superpower unwilling to engage in fair global trade practices. While Trump’s critique of China’s trade policies may resonate in some quarters, including SAFTU, his strategy has hurt not only China but also developing economies reliant on fair global trade, particularly in Africa.

After all, Trump unilaterally imposed higher trade tariffs (10-25%) on $1.3 billion worth of South African aluminium and steel exports to the U.S. from March to October 2018. China’s reaction is to begin a decoupling from U.S. markets, a strategy that South Africa should also explore with allies, e.g. in the BRICS, because the Trump regime makes the U.S. a highly unreliable trading partner, one which due to withdrawal from United Nations climate obligations is essentially now going to cheat on emissions, by producing goods that will be cheaper because of much lower environmental regulations, and given Trump’s hatred of pro-worker regulations, we can expect the same cheating on goods produced in the country’s fast-declining unionised factories and service centres.

Retreat from Multilateralism and the Dangers of Unilateralism

Trump’s presidency was marked by a systematic withdrawal from key international institutions and agreements. His disdain for multilateralism was evident in the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the World Health Organization (WHO), and threats to disengage from the World Trade Organization (WTO). These actions eroded global cooperation and emboldened other nations to disregard international norms.

These institutions are by no means allies of working class interests, especially the WTO: recall its failure to overturn ‘vaccine apartheid’ during COVID-19 despite the South African government’s 2020-22 requests for Intellectual Property waivers on life-saving medicines. Recall the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s ridiculous annual conferences—as we witnessed in Durban in 2011 and last year in Baku, Azerbaijan—that are utterly dominated by fossil fuel interests and that fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions or to recognise the big polluters’ climate debt. Nevertheless, the UNFCCC, the WHO and WTO currently exist to manage international climate catastrophes, pandemics and unfair trade chaos. Hence, Trump’s wreckage of multilateralism deserves punishment, such as trade sanctions (the ‘Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism’ is one such tariff that can be applied against U.S. goods and services). A ‘Just Transition’ for affected workers and communities would be appropriate to begin designing to address the need to decouple South Africa from the U.S. due to Trump’s irresponsible use of tariffs and rejection of multilateralism.

Historically, the United States’ unilateral geopolitical actions, such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq without UN Security Council approval and its persistent UNSC veto of anything critical of the Israeli genocidaires, have had devastating consequences. Trump’s preference for unilateralism amplifies the risks of similar actions, undermining international law and eroding the legitimacy of institutions meant to preserve global peace and stability. While rooted in claims of the unfairness of international trade reflected in vast Chinese surpluses (due to their implicit subsidies such as hostility to trade unionism), Trump’s withdrawal from the WTO will probably amplify the institution’s historical bias against the Global South, including African economies that remain disadvantaged by global trade systems, because the alternative to the WTO is more explicitly imperialist bilateral trade arrangements.

Those deals that may carry certain benefits to some manufacturers—e.g. multinational corporations making automobiles, steel, aluminium and petrochemicals in South Africa—are now threatened by Trump’s allies in the U.S. Congress. This year, they will probably end about R60 billion in annual trade benefits the firms (and their workers) receive through the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act due to the South African government’s correct stance against Israeli genocide at the International Court of Justice. We may also note that for decades, U.S. governments—whether under Trump/Bush Republican or Biden/Obama/Clinton Democratic Party rule—have ignored their own ‘international rule of law’ rhetoric by ignoring and now forcefully attacking the two Hague courts, which have taken decisions critical of the Israeli genocidaires.

Climate Denialism in the Face of Global Calamities

Perhaps most alarming is Trump’s continued climate denialism. In the face of increasingly devastating climate-related disasters, including since the November 2024 election within the United States, wildfires (devastating even Trump’s wealthy Los Angeles allies, as he pointed out as ‘interesting’ in his inaugural speech), extreme droughts, hurricanes, floods and unprecedented snowfalls (in Florida!), his refusal to acknowledge the urgency of climate change is both reckless and dangerous. His administration’s rollback of environmental protections and withdrawal from international climate agreements will jeopardise global efforts to keep the world safe from unsustainable climate change and place millions of lives at risk.

The consequences of such policies are not theoretical. Communities worldwide, particularly in the Global South, are already bearing the brunt of climate change, with catastrophic droughts and fires, floods, and heat waves displacing millions and wiping out food sovereignty. Trump’s denialism and inaction on climate change represent a grave threat to humanity’s collective future.

The Rise of Right-Wing Ideologies

Trump’s resurgence mirrors the dangerous rise of right-wing ideologies across Europe and in parts of Asia, Latin America, Africa and elsewhere. These movements are marked by homophobia, anti-migrant rhetoric, patriarchy, racism and the scapegoating of vulnerable populations for economic and social challenges. Such ideologies deepen divisions within societies, foster hostility, and undermine the principles of equality and human dignity.

Trump’s policies—from banning migrants from Muslim-majority countries to mass deportation plans (11 million Mexicans have been targeted) and separating children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border—are sickening reflections of these divisive and harmful tendencies. These actions not only violate fundamental human rights but also fail to address the root causes of migration and inequality, perpetuating cycles of violence and poverty.

Conclusion

Donald Trump’s second coming represents a renewed threat to global solidarity, equality, and sustainability—the very themes South Africa will promote while hosting Trump as part of the G20 this year. His brand of narrow nationalism, climate denialism, and disdain for multilateralism endangers the progress made by international movements committed to justice and solidarity. His influence has emboldened homophobic leaders and movements across the globe, exacerbating intolerance and reversing the gains made in human rights.

While the Gaza cease-fire is to be welcomed if it holds, the Israelis will receive even more U.S. weapons—including 2000-pound bombs—to attack other parts of Palestine, as is being witnessed this week in Jenin and probably will receive Trump’s approval to occupy the West Bank fully.

SAFTU calls on progressive forces worldwide to resist the rise of Trumpism and its counterparts globally. We must intensify our efforts to build a world rooted in fairness, cooperation, and sustainability, rejecting the divisive ideologies that threaten humanity’s collective future.

Specifically, we suggest that when U.S. government representative such as Mario Rubio—the neoconservative ultra-Zionist Foreign Minister—visits Nasrec as part of the G20 foreign ministers’ meetings on February 20-21, activists from pro-Palestine and climate movements join workers to protest outside. We will do the same if Trump is given a State Visit in November, as President Cyril Ramaphosa has foolishly decided to offer the U.S. President.

And as Trump imposes tariffs on South Africa and the rest of the world, we too will lobby for “BDS USA”—Boycott Divestment Sanctions against U.S. products. Such a strategy based on international people’s solidarity is already underway against Israel and fossil fuel companies—and is what assisted in bringing down apartheid when financial sanctions hit in 1985, forcing a split in the ruling class between badly affected English-speaking white businesses and the apartheid regime’s Afrikaner rulers, as a divide-and-conquer.

With Elon Musk’s Nazi-style salute on the day of Trump’s inauguration and his boyhood in Gauteng to consider, it is entirely appropriate that we work with affected U.S. trade unions and progressive organisations, perhaps starting with a call to boycott X.com (Twitter), Tesla, and SpaceX (Starlink), so that we can signal how Musk’s enormous wealth increase since he invested $275 million in electing Trump, can also be undone once neo-fascism moves from a threat to reality.

Zwelinzima Vavi is the General Secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU).

55th Annual World Economic Forum (WEF) Meeting

Bonang Mohale takes a look at the 55th Annual World Economic Forum (WEF) Meeting and explores some of its history

Davos in Switzerland is the highest town in Europe, situated at 1 560m in the mountains. As result, it is a very popular skiing destination precisely due to its cold weather, ice and snow at this time of the year! Yet ever since the World Economic Forum (WEF) brought its Annual Meeting to the alpine venue, the name resonates with the flagship event. The 20-24 January 2025 event is the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that has brought together nearly 3 000 leaders from over 130 countries and 350 governmental leaders, including 60 heads of state and governments, from all key regions; over 1 600 business leaders, including over 900 of the world’s top CEOs and Chairs from the WEF Members and Partners—over 120 of which are Global Innovators, Tech Pioneers, and Unicorns who are transforming industries; civil society; the foremost scientific and cultural thinkers.

Today, the programme contains more than 300 sessions—200 of which are livestreamed to a global audience that aim to accelerate progress and tackle global challenges. The agenda changes every year to address the world’s most pressing issues—from pandemic preparedness and reskilling, to the state of the global economy and the energy transition.

The WEF releases the Global Risks Report ahead of the Annual Meeting each January, to identify and analyse the upcoming near- and longer term critical global risks that underpin discussions. The Forum continues this work year round with a range of initiatives via its Centres. Geo-economic fragmentation, geopolitical polarisation and divisions over values continue to impact countries and communities across the world. At the same time, exponential innovation and deployment around whole sets of inter-connected technologies—from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum to energy tech, biotech and health tech—offer an unprecedented opportunity to increase productivity and hence standards of living.

Reviving and reimagining growth is critical to building stronger and more resilient economies. Given these powerful forces at play, three questions are guiding the conversations, namely how can we avoid an age of Fragmentation and instead work together on a can-do, people-centred agenda for an Intelligent Age; how can we reinvent the muscle of collaborative innovation to get out of the current low-growth, high-debt world economy and address common challenges from climate change to the ethical use of AI? To respond to this dynamic context, the WEF has convened leaders under the theme, ‘Collaboration for the Intelligent Age’.

Building on the core roles of the WEF as the International Organisation for Public Private Cooperation, it serves as a trusted global platform for dialogue and cooperation; brings together a diverse community of stakeholders; seeks to connect the dots in an era of complexity; firmly future oriented both in terms of insights and solutions and leadership in complexity to look at the necessary toolkit to navigate this fast-evolving environment.

The programme is oriented around five distinct but highly interconnected thematic priorities: reimagining growth; industries in the intelligent age; investment in people; safeguarding the planet; and rebuilding trust. It is accessible to the wider public through livestreaming of the public sessions, complemented by the presence of media leaders and reporting press and through local engagement at the Open Forum in Davos.

It brings together these leaders to set the year’s agenda for how leaders of social partners can make the world a better place for all. Its relevance as a global gathering sits within and beyond the official programme. The importance of dialogue—often happening in private conversations—reveals an ever important mission to convene leaders when ‘threats to world stability are multiplying’.

Following its founding on the 24 January 1971 by Professor Klaus Schwab, the European Management Symposium (EMS), as it was then known, held its first meeting in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. The WEF tries to embody ‘the spirit of Davos’, which is an attitude of openness and cooperation that is core to the mission of the Forum. The ‘Davos Manifesto’, created in 1973 and renewed in 2020, lays out the principles of stakeholder capitalism or a system of shared goals for businesses.

Inaugural participants discussed Professor Schwab’s ‘stakeholder theory’, his vision that businesses should serve all stakeholders, rather than just shareholders, including employees, suppliers and the wider community. Today, ‘stakeholder capitalism’ is a guiding principle of the Forum. In 1973, the Annual Meeting endorsed the Davos Manifesto’s ‘Code of Ethics for Business Leaders’ which was updated in 2020 to set out the purpose of business in the Fourth Industrial Revolution—itself a concept coined by Professor Schwab in his 2016 book. Politicians were first invited to take part in the WEF, Davos in 1974 and in 1987 the EMS became the World Economic Forum, with a broadened aim to provide a platform to address the pressing issues of the day via public-private cooperation.

The WEF recognises the severity of the climate crisis and does its best to lead by example and boost sustainability at Davos. Since 2017, all Davos-related carbon (CO2) emissions have been calculated and offset through environmental projects in Switzerland and abroad. It also ensures that energy consumption at Davos is limited, takes steps to reduce waste and that only renewable electricity is used for the event. These efforts include the use of repurposed event materials, the removal of single-use plastics and collaborations with local associations to distribute non-used furniture and food leftovers.

Transportation remains the primary source of CO2 emissions at Davos. Therefore, it encourages attendees to travel in the most sustainable manner and offers a 100% discount for all participants in Europe who travel by train. Davos also serves as an opportunity to showcase climate research and sound the alarm on the many pressing climate-related issues. At Davos 2019, David Attenborough delivered a powerful address on the ‘new geological age’ and in 2023 the USA Climate Envoy, John Kerry, called for the ‘biggest transformation, economically, since the industrial revolution’.

Aligning with the Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, launched in 2005, Davos strives to be a gender-equal platform. In recent years, women have made up a quarter of attendees, a higher proportion than among world or business leaders. In 2018, there was an all-female line up of co-chairs for the meeting. Together, they also made up the first all-female panel of Davos co-chairs, thereby sending a powerful message as the shockwaves of the #MeToo movement spread. In 2025, the goal remains to achieve near parity for session moderation roles. The Global Gender Gap Report has become one of the most closely analysed annual benchmarking exercises and the Forum runs an increasing number of taskforces in various countries to work with a broader stakeholder community to speed up progress towards parity.

Many of the governments, companies and international organisations who attend Davos put on sideline events outside of the Annual Meeting venue. These events—which can include dinners, parties, exhibitions, industry meetings and bilateral talks—are both planned and sponsored by the host organisations. Aside from Davos, the organisation convenes regional conferences, from which it produces a series of reports, engages its members in sector-specific initiatives and provides a platform for leaders from selected stakeholder groups to collaborate on projects and initiatives.

Davos had been the venue for the Annual Meeting every year until 2002 when, in a gesture of solidarity with the people of New York following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the Forum held the event in the USA city. When COVID-19 struck, initially Davos 2021 and then Davos 2022 went entirely digital as the ‘Davos Agenda’.

The in-person Davos 2022 was rescheduled to May 2022 with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine high on the agenda. January 2023 saw a return to the usual winter slot and with careful health measures in place, the meeting marked the beginning of the end of three years of a global pandemic.

Bonang Mohale is the Chancellor of the University of the Free State, former President of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), Professor of Practice at the Johannesburg Business School (JBS) in the College of Business and Economics, and Chairman of two listed entities.

BT Industrial Group: built on innovation, experience, and passion

Ido Lekota sat down with Kgomotso Lekola, the founder and managing director of BT Industrial Group, to find out more about how his organisation is growing from strength to strength

 To foster the inclusive economic growth South Africa urgently needs, the country must build an industrialisation ecosystem that truly embraces risk and recognises that real innovation demands significant, long-term investment. This perspective acknowledges that success and failure are two sides of the same coin and genuine breakthroughs can only occur when funders and policymakers are prepared to shoulder the cost of experimentation, even when returns are not immediately apparent and the country has done this before with the likes of SASOL for instance.

Entrepreneur and industrialist Kgomotso Lekola, founder and managing director of BT Industrial Group, is a strong advocate of this approach.

Citing the example of East Asian industrialisation—where governments deliberately concentrated resources on key industries and companies—Lekola believes South Africa lags behind because its industrialisation ecosystem (including Development Financial Institutions) severely punishes failure along the path to innovation. This aversion to risk stifles the kind of bold innovation seen in global success stories like Tesla, SpaceX, BYD, and many others.

“The South African ecosystem largely driven by the DFI severely punish failure, thereby discouraging the risk-taking by entrepreneurs a key requirement for the genuine innovation that build new productive and competitive industrial capacity,” Lekola explains. “We should follow the example of countries such as the United States, where failure is not penalised but valued as hard-earned experience.”

Lekola points to America’s willingness to fund ambitious, high-stakes ventures—long before the results are clear—as a major reason for the country’s industrial leadership.

“In 2023, the US recorded 154 IPO listings compared to the European Union’s 68, despite the EU’s larger population; in South Africa the number of listed companies has halved over the last decade; the numbers speak for themselves.”

Lekola argues that the substantial backing of risk in the United States enabled figures like Musk, Bezos, and many others to thrive. Had Tesla’s 17 unprofitable years or SpaceX’s rocket explosions occurred in South Africa, Lekola asserts that their initiatives would almost certainly have been shut down and they would have been lampooned.

As an entrepreneur with 38 registered patents and trademarks—mainly in medical devices—Lekola emphasises that South Africa must shift its economic perspective if the nation is to cultivate genuine innovation. True breakthroughs demand ample time, capital, and a tolerance for risk. Without these elements in place, South Africa will continue to lag behind more forward-thinking economies in industrial and economic development, contends Lekola.

“Our products are available in some of South Africa’s leading private hospital groups—ranging from prefilled flushing syringes and wound closure systems to the more recent anaesthetic and ventilation machines. These innovations, including our flushing syringes (protected by patents and trademarks), are the result of BT Industrial Group’s commitment to homegrown engineering, design, and development. We have also created a continuous development training programme for medical professionals, contributing 10% of their annual CPD requirements.

“As a company, BT Industrial Group embodies a blend of innovation, experience, and passion that underpins our success. Our decades of expertise in engineering, technology, and business management have enabled us to carve out a unique position in South Africa’s drive for sustainable economic development through innovation—an approach that values both success and failure as essential elements of bold progress.

“The COVID-19 lockdown further solidified our reputation for resilience. At a time when global supply chains were in chaos and prices for critical essentials were soaring—especially as developed nations prioritised their own citizens—we refused to stand still. Instead, BT Industrial Group stepped up to ensure the developing world had access to lifesaving medical filters at competitive prices.

“Our engineers leveraged their experience in polythene plastic production to craft locally sourced alternatives for electrostatic polypropylene-based filters, a key component of respiratory masks. While the world depended almost entirely on the Far East for these filters, we seized the opportunity to innovate here at home, producing them from 100% South African materials and freeing ourselves from import dependency.

“In this way, BT Industrial Group not only demonstrated its ability to sustain high-quality manufacturing but also underscored how commitment, creativity, and calculated risk-taking can help meet urgent needs—even under the most challenging circumstances. By focusing on locally driven solutions, we continue to broaden our impact and ensure that medical professionals across the country—and beyond—have the resources they need to deliver world-class healthcare.”

One of the critical products that drove the price of respiratory masks during the lockdown was the availability of medical-grade electrostatic polypropylene-based filters, which are at the heart of medical masks. Meanwhile, the world depended on the Far East to supply nearly all the filters.

Realising the crisis, the BT Industrial group engineers used their experience in the production of polythene plastic to research how to use locally sourced material to manufacture the much-needed medical filters. This saw the company eventually managing to produce these filters from 100% locally sourced material ensuring complete independence from imports.

Not only did BT Industrial Group get the production right, but the quality of its products also spoke for itself, and its pricing was well in line with that of global competitors. Within a few months, the company was approached by various European and American firms seeking to diversify away from the East. The BT Industrial Group prides itself as one of Africa’s largest manufacturers of HDPE pipes serving various industries and sectors, including mining, agriculture, bulk water infrastructure, and construction. The company is now even venturing into the growing Green Hydrogen sector.

The company is the leading industrial solutions provider, specialising in HDPE pipe manufacturing, pipe system design and engineering, supply chain solutions, and medical device development. The company is a recipient of two Presidential awards, recognising its dedication to industrial growth and development across Africa.

As a developing country, South Africa is facing significant socio-economic challenges related to the level of deindustrialisation it has faced in the past at least 15 years, leading to stagnant economic growth, a decline in employment, and output in the manufacturing as well as the mining sector.

For example, research has revealed that in April 2020, the country’s manufacturing production dropped by 49.4% compared to the previous year, with the automotive industry mainly having it.

This untenable situation is having the effect of the country being unable to address one of the most critical issues in the post-apartheid South Africa—transforming the economy into one wherein every citizen is an active participant—especially the previously excluded.

Despite this rather bleak picture, the BT Industrial Group is proving to be one of those green shoots whereby entrepreneurs and industrialists from previously marginalised communities are making inroads as active players, committed to turning the country’s untenable economic tide around.

Essentially, the company consists of four units powered by science and engineering to achieve high return on investment and champion environmental sustainability in the 100+ projects it has completed since its establishment in 2017.

The company’s first unit focuses on manufacturing high-quality HDPE pipes and accessories specifically designed to cater to the unique African environment, leading to ROI improvements of up to 30%.

The Pipeline & Engineering Consulting unit specialises in designing and engineering services for piping systems and water treatment plants. According to the BT Industrial group, its clients in this sector have achieved an ROI of 16 times their original investment.

This is accomplished by the company creating customized, modular, distributed solutions to improve water security for retail, commercial, mining, agriculture, and industrial applications. This lowers the strain on municipal systems, allowing for faster infrastructure implementation.

As part of its supply chain solutions, the company streamlines the supply of specialised goods in mining, ensuring smooth operations.

In this regard, the company’s expertise in reagents, chemicals, goods, and electrical cables boosts delivery speed, maximises revenue, and minimises downtime.

The BT Industrial Group’s medical device development unit focuses on creating innovative medical products that improve patient outcomes while lowering costs. These results are achieved through the BT Medical Devices and Equipment division and the BT Acute Care division.

The former division is recognised in South Africa for leveraging cutting-edge technologies, setting new standards with innovations, and enhancing healthcare delivery efficiency. The latter division provides ICU and theatre solutions. It focuses on critical care for seriously ill patients while ensuring a high quality of care.

Some of the products produced by the former division include pre-filled syringes and advanced wound closure products. According to the BT Industrial Group, the pre-filled syringes cut costs and risk by 66% in medical treatment relating to blood vessels—potentially saving South Africa up to R3 billion in medical costs. Some of the benefits of the pre-filled syringes include:

• • Helping prevent catheter-related infections
  
• • Helping reduce the risks of needle stick injuries
  
• • Helping increase clinical staff efficiency
  
• • Helping prevent catheter blood reflux
  
• • Helping reduce medication error
  
• • Helping reduce drug incompatibility
  

According to the BT Industrial Group, advanced wound closure products reduce healing time from months to weeks, lowering treatment costs. Advanced wound closure products are also said to minimise scarring.

Research on the company’s products is conducted in its two fully equipped laboratories staffed by 11 engineers and scientists to ensure its products’ superiority.

As part of his vision of contributing to the African continent’s sustainable economic development, Lekola is now leading his company in finding potential investments in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, given their strategic economic positioning.

In this context, the BT Industrial Group’s next frontier is the DRC and Zambia due their richness–making them pivotal to Africa and even the world’s energy transition.

The DRC and Zambia’s mineral wealth makes them critical global supply chains for renewable technologies. On the other hand, as part of the Great Lakes region, the two countries have strong bilateral ties with South Africa, which are shared in the interest of regional stability.

In this context, BT Industrial Group’s investment strategy is also driven by a commitment to, for example, ethical and sustainable mining in terms which there is minimised environmental damage and as well as benefits to the affected communities.

BT Industrial Group traces its roots back to 2007, laying the groundwork for a pivotal acquisition in 2013 of AfricaWeather, a Johannesburg-based business specialising in advanced, location-specific weather warnings and forecasts. During this time, Lekola financed the purchase through a bank loan, and under his leadership, AfricaWeather expanded its footprint across Africa and into Australia. The company also introduced an SMS alert system for insurance clients, enabling them to protect their assets by receiving real-time severe weather updates.

After about four years, Lekola sold his remaining stake in AfricaWeather—earning three times his initial investment. Through AfricaWeather’s work with mining, insurance, and agricultural operations, Lekola gained in-depth exposure to the mining industry—one of the company’s main clients. Recognising a gap in engineering consulting for water management in mines (where water must be pumped out or used in processing), he saw an opportunity for BT Industrial Group to enter the sector.

However, a significant hurdle emerged: the suppliers of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes—essential for water conveyance—were plagued by poor quality and a lack of professionalism. Lekola’s team recommended that BT Industrial manufacture its own pipes. So, in partnership with the head of engineering, he flew to China to explore machinery suppliers, eventually purchasing the required equipment and setting up a small factory on the outskirts of Johannesburg—once again backed partially by bank financing.

The path to success was anything but smooth. BT Industrial Group was promised it would take three months to certify its pipes for general market use, yet the accreditation process dragged on for nearly a year. “We thought we’d set up the machines, wait three months, and start selling,” Lekola recalled in a media interview. “Instead, we burned money for almost 12 months with zero revenue. Those were truly nightmare times. Fortunately, we were fully self-funded then, so we didn’t have the added stress of stakeholder conflicts.”

Despite these setbacks, BT Industrial Group gained a competitive edge by advising its customers—often in the mining sector—on designing more cost-effective systems. “Many setups in the industry are over-specified,” Lekola explains. “When our clients understood the savings they could achieve, it made selling much easier. Of course, there were still those fixated on price alone, but we choose not to cater to that bottom-feeder market. Otherwise, you end up in the gutter, stuck playing the price game.”

Today, BT Industrial Group’s story exemplifies how embracing risk, navigating failure, and leveraging hard-won expertise can generate innovative solutions that benefit multiple sectors. From AfricaWeather’s groundbreaking weather alerts to the high-quality HDPE pipes serving major mines, the company has steadily forged a path that champions both resilience and relentless progress.

What makes Lekola an outstanding entrepreneur and industrialist is his belief in South Africa as a country with the potential to play a vital role in the African continent’s economic independence.

According to Lekola, South Africa is a “sleeping giant most probably still waiting for its moment to take on the world to come”. For Lekola, this approach undermines South Africa’s potential to be an outstanding global economic player for the benefit of its people.

“We have to rethink our national strategy for growth, meaningful economic participation of blacks and job creation; it’s not just about funding and quality of education. Here we were, a 100% black-owned South African company with an employee base educated in the public system yet competing globally in producing innovative and specialised medical products. Also, we are not alone in this mission; other South African companies followed suit in their spheres.

“There was a time when labour cost was the East’s most significant competitive advantage over the rest of the world; however, technological advancements have largely belied that truism. In the internet age, expert knowledge is available at the click of the button. Also, with computerised high throughput production equipment, any country with the appropriate strategic focus can build a substantial and competitive industrial sector based on manufacturing.”

It is also Lekola’s view that—with the right policies—South Africa is ready to be more import-independent thereby driving its industrial development. Failure to adopt such policies will lead to a further erosion of the country’s industrial capacity.

“We will then continue on a downward spiral of increased joblessness with the much-needed technically smart people immigrating to other countries for more fulfilling opportunities. In turn we will depend more on foreign countries for essential goods and services.”

Ido Lekota is a former Sowetan Editor and regular contributor to Leadership Magazine.

Six million young moms in Africa are not in school

In sub-Saharan Africa more than six million pregnant and parenting girls are out of school—and few go back after giving birth. Here’s how the barriers to girls’ schooling can be broken down to help keep young moms in class.

For the past five years, about 130 000 adolescent girls have given birth in South Africa each year—it means one in every seven babies are born to teenagers.

This challenge crosses South Africa’s borders.

In East and Southern Africa, a quarter of young women give birth before they’re 18, with the teen pregnancy rate in the region at 92 per 1 000 girls, twice the global average. Moreover, six in ten girls are not in school.

Other social issues add to this: close to 80 million girls experience sexual violence before they turn 18, and about 3 100 in the age group 15–24 acquire HIV every week.

Research shows one of the best ways to help adolescent moms build a life for them and their babies is to keep them in school—and most importantly, help them to finish secondary school.

Because when young moms finish school, they tend to have more job opportunities, and better health—for themselves and their children.

But restrictive policies, stigma and discrimination, and financial hardships can stop mothering learners from going back to school. In fact, in sub-Saharan Africa over six million pregnant and parenting girls are out of school—with many not going back after giving birth.

The African Union (AU) declared 2024 the year of education in Africa, with the continent’s leaders vowing to make girls’ and women’s schooling a priority.

Adolescent moms—an often overlooked group—need specific support, say the signatories to an AU-backed set of recommendations, declared at the 1st African Union Pan-African Conference on Girls and Women’s Education.

Having a baby before 18 can put both young mothers and their children at risk. Such moms are two to five times more likely to die during labour than women in their 20s, may drop out of school and fall pregnant again soon, and can face mental health challenges. Their babies may also die at a young age or struggle with physical and cognitive development and have worse educational outcomes.

What can help fulfil adolescent moms’ right to education—and unlock their potential for a continent with a brighter future?

Set policies to help girls go back to school

According to a 2022 Human Rights Watch report, at least 38 African countries have adopted laws or policies that ensure pregnant girls can stay in school, and go back after giving birth.

Knowing about these rights might be protective. For instance, in Zambia, young moms who knew about their country’s re-entry policy were almost 90% less likely to leave school because of teasing or bullying and said they felt less stigmatised when they came back after giving birth.

But just knowing that girls should be able to go back to school without shame is not enough—especially among school administrators responsible for implementing these policies. A 2015 study from Kenya found that while teachers were aware of the country’s re-entry policy, they chose not to implement it, to preserve the “image” of the school.

Having support from their school could influence how easy—or difficult—it is for adolescent mothers to return to school, studies show. Teachers can make or break this, especially with evidence—from several countries—showing that these moms report being treated badly by their educators.

However, properly trained and empowered teachers can create an inclusive and welcoming environment through, for example, being more empathic and introducing more flexible teaching methods, such as helping with catch-up plans for missed schoolwork. An evidence-informed training toolkit planned to be field tested in South Africa to help educators meet the needs of mothering learners was co-developed in South Africa with teachers and school managers, governing bodies, community organisations, government stakeholders, and young moms themselves.

Make it easier for girls to keep on learning—and be moms at the same time

Malawi’s Zomba Programme, which paid tuition fees for school-going girls in the rural Zomba district in an effort to combat HIV, not only lowered HIV rates (by 64%) but also delayed early marriage and pregnancy and encouraged girls who dropped out of school to go back to their classes. Barriers such as long commutes to school or money worries are more pronounced in the case of school-going mothers, because they need to organise—and sometimes pay for—someone to look after their babies.

When childcare services are available, young moms report experiencing greater autonomy in their decisions about continuing with school. In South Africa, research has shown that making use of childcare is linked with higher odds of moms being in school or having a job, passing to the next grade, having positive plans for the future and showing a healthy parenting style. Their children also tend to score better on thinking, language and motor tasks as they get older than when they were not in childcare.

But schools alone can’t meet all the needs of adolescent mothers; other sectors need to provide support too.

For example, an analysis of child welfare outcomes in Ethiopia (2002–2013) showed that the health extension programme, which addressed health education, child vaccination and family planning, helped to reduce child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, increased school enrolment, and improved children’s skills in reading and working with numbers.

Findings from a study with adolescent girls in the Eastern Cape, including those who’ve had a baby, show that having enough to eat is linked with fewer of them engaging in transactional sex, sex while on substances and sex with an older partner — and at the same time supports school enrolment.

Help girls tap into peer support

Having support from friends (including other young moms), parents or teachers can help girls continue their schooling. For example, in a 2022 study in Malawi, young mothers reported that all-women groups from the community worked with school staff and parents to encourage them to come back to class after giving birth.

Across several eastern and southern African countries, peer providers—other young moms from the same community—offer mental health and social support, such as for accessing cash grants and finding alternative routes to keep learning (like vocational training) and other ways to earn their own money.

Sello Matsoso, programme director of Help Lesotho, a non-profit organisation that runs life skills and social support projects in the country, says they’ve seen “many positive outcomes when such support is in place, such as young mothers feeling markedly more hopeful and confident in seeking health services, more using condoms during sex, and intimate partner violence dropping by almost half”.

The intersecting challenges that adolescent girls and mothers may face—such as HIV and violence—highlight the need for interventions that address a combination of issues, rather than just one.

For example, in South Africa, findings show that this approach is linked to positive education and health outcomes among these young women: staying in school during pregnancy, feeling self-confident, getting friendly and respectful health services and the use of formal childcare services are linked with more condom use (55–66%)—thus lowering the chance of getting HIV and falling pregnant again quickly—more mothering girls progressing to the next grade (37–79%) as well as more going back to school after giving birth (40–90%).

Investing in girls’ education—also for those who’ve had a baby—and helping them stay in school can unlock their potential, help them break out of poverty and build healthier and better educated future generations.

But for this to happen, harmful social and gender norms that infringe on these girls’ rights need to be broken down so that they can be part of shaping their own future.

The AU’s commitment to inclusive education is an important step towards giving young women a brighter future, but only swift, accountable action will ensure that every girl can learn, thrive and contribute to a healthier, more equitable society.

Shanice Kasura, Itumeleng Senetla, Chiedza Chinakwetu, Alice Armstrong and Jane Kelly form part of the Unicef Eastern and Southern Africa partnership with the Universities of Cape Town and Oxford, under the Joint UN 2gether 4 SRHR programme.

It’s time to redefine governance through strategic communication

Gina Din on why African governments must rethink
communication for effective governance in a changing global order

Africa is at a pivotal moment in its history. With abundant natural resources, a dynamic and youthful population, and an increasingly prominent role in global geopolitics, the continent holds unparalleled potential to redefine its trajectory. The African Union’s recent inclusion in the G20 is not only symbolic but also historic—a testament to Africa’s growing influence on the world stage. However, to fully leverage this opportunity and truly assert its priorities, African governments must confront a critical yet undervalued component of governance: communication.

Effective communication is the cornerstone of trust, transparency, and accountability. Without it, even the most ambitious policies risk being misunderstood or dismissed. The Edelman Trust Barometer consistently reveals a troubling trend: trust in governments worldwide is eroding, and Africa is no exception. This trust deficit is exacerbated by outdated communication practices that fail to engage citizens meaningfully, particularly younger generations whose expectations are reshaping the civic landscape.

Africa’s Gen Z, now a formidable demographic force, has come of age in the digital era. They demand immediacy, authenticity, and interaction from their leaders. Yet, many African governments remain locked in antiquated, top-down communication models—sporadic press statements, rigid speeches, and media engagements that prioritize control over dialogue. These approaches alienate rather than engage, fostering disillusionment among a generation that represents the future of the continent.

The chasm between election campaigns and governance communication further compounds this problem. Campaigns are often dynamic and engaging, leveraging technology, compelling narratives, and grassroots mobilization. However, once in office, many leaders fail to transition to a governance model of communication that is strategic, professional, and inclusive. Retaining campaign teams ill-equipped for governance communication only deepens this disconnect, leading to fragmented messaging and missed opportunities to build trust.

Media freedom—or the lack thereof—is another critical factor. Across several countries on the continent, media independence has been constrained by governmental influence, undermining trust and limiting the press’s ability to hold leaders accountable. Independent journalism is the bedrock of transparency and an essential ally in fostering trust between governments and their citizens. Rather than viewing a free press as a threat, African governments should see it as a partner in amplifying their narratives and engaging with citizens more effectively.

The inclusion of the African Union in the G20 offers a platform for Africa to assert its narrative, but this requires mastery of strategic storytelling. For too long, Africa has been defined by narratives imposed from outside, focusing on its challenges rather than its strengths. Leaders must craft and articulate a united narrative that showcases Africa’s resilience, innovation, and immense potential while addressing its challenges with honesty and clarity. Clear communication on priorities like climate adaptation, equitable trade, and digital transformation can elevate Africa’s global standing and attract investment.

This is not merely about public relations; it is about reimagining communication as a strategic function of governance. Governments must invest in building professional communication teams with the expertise to craft coherent messages, manage crises, and foster sustained dialogue. The importance of crisis communication cannot be overstated. Whether during a natural disaster, public health emergency, or political unrest, citizens expect—and deserve—transparency and rapid responses. Gen Z, in particular, holds leaders to a high standard, expecting clear and immediate communication during times of uncertainty.

The stakes could not be higher. The Edelman Trust Barometer underscores that trust is the currency of governance. Without it, governments risk alienating their citizens and undermining their legitimacy. Africa’s leaders must understand that communication is not an ancillary function; it is the lifeblood of effective governance.

As the world watches Africa’s rise, the continent faces a choice: to embrace communication as a tool for building trust, fostering inclusion, and asserting its place in the global order, or to remain mired in outdated practices that stifle progress. This is a moment of immense possibility, but it is also a test of leadership. Will Africa’s governments rise to the challenge, or will they let this historic opportunity slip away?

Gen Z is watching. The world is watching. The time to act is now. Africa’s leaders must seize this moment to redefine governance through strategic communication. The future of the continent—and its role in the global order—depends on it.

Gina Din is a renowned African communications strategist and founder of the Gina Din Group, Kenya’s leading strategic communications firm.

This article was first published on New African and appears with permission.

Ethiopia: a country making its own luck

Ethiopians have a way of making a success out of
ventures that truly matter, writes Victor Kgomoeswana

 The 10 January 2025 was the inaugural trading day of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESE). Oddly, only one company was listed: in a country of 130 million people? What was all the fuss if only one company—local medium-sized lender Wegagen Bank—would list? The Economist even carried an online story with a cheeky headline—under the theme ‘ring hollow’: “Ethiopia gets a stock market. Now it just needs some firms to list”.

Whoever doubts Ethiopia’s capability to make this stock exchange work needs to look at the country’s track record with moonshots. Africa’s most successful airline; one of Africa’s busiest and largest airports (Bole International Airport—about to build another expected to have the annual capacity of over 100 million); the multibillion-dollar hydroelectric power project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is over 97% complete.

Ethiopia is far from perfect. It is still a country in distress. It is overindebted, like most African countries, it faces ethnic and regional conflicts, and most of its citizens are poor.

To illustrate the latter point, the United Nations’ Development Programme in 2019 estimated that 68.7% of the population of Ethiopia (over 86 million people in 2022) was multidimensionally poor, with a further 18.4% being classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. But then that is what makes me focus so much on the resilience of African countries.

My interest in Africa’s resilience is to find and showcase against-the-odds success stories. Although African countries can aspire to be like their most developed European counterparts, they can learn more realistic lessons and adopt best practice better from their fellow African or other developing countries.

Ethiopia remains underrated as an African role model. This arises from a combination of factors, including how its story is reported by media whose mandates seek to protect foreign interests.

For example, when faced with the risk of not being able to raise the money to construct the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the government of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi resorted to crowdfunding. He strengthened the culture of self-reliance by allowing ordinary Ethiopians to contribute from as little as $50 to the project.

That raised over $3 billion and set the project well on its way. Once completed, the GERD will make Ethiopia an exporter of hydroelectric power to the entire East African and Horn of Africa region. Many countries—in a similar position—would have relented and abandoned the project. Instead of looking elsewhere for money, Ethiopia looked inward. One can bet that this is how the ESE will succeed—by not relying on foreign investors like many African stock exchanges tend to, but by appealing to the financial aspirations of Ethiopians.

How many more African countries continue to depend on foreign funding for their development, even when they have enough natural resources to leverage as incentives to attract investors?

The story of Ethiopian Airlines is another example of how African governments can own and operate profitable fast-growing airlines. Whereas its formerly bigger counterparts, like SAA, are floundering or only figuring out ways to ways to turn themselves around), Ethiopian Airlines and Bole International Airport have grown phenomenally from ferrying under 3 million passengers in 2000 to where Ethiopia has replaced Dubai as the gateway to Africa in aviation.

Ethiopian Airlines not only succeeded in running a profitable enterprise, even during the COVID-19 lockdown, but it now also has partnered Malawian Airlines, ASKY (based in Togo), and Zambia Airways (where it owns 45%). It also owns high-end hotels in the Bole airport precinct and is part of the initiative to build a 110 million passenger international airport, which should come into operation in 2029.

When other airlines were grounded by the lockdown in 2020 and 2021, Ethiopian Airlines—which is run by Ethiopians—displayed strategic agility by repurposing some its fleet to transport cargo. This enabled the airline to distribute protective gear like masks, gloves, and sanitisers. When the COVID-19 vaccine was finally manufactured, Bole International Airport effectively became the distribution hub. This was how the airline returned a profit during the lockdown, making it one of less than five carriers all over the world to do so. Any African airline that has not learned anything from Ethiopian Airlines only has itself to blame. When governments are being told to get out of the ownership and operation of airlines, Ethiopian Airlines is proof that Africans have all they need within themselves.

When he took over as Prime Minister in 2018, Abiy Ahmed did a lot to stabilise the Horn of Africa region. Granted, he was criticised for his handling of the Tigray crisis, but then again, he managed to restore diplomatic relations with Eritrea and Somalia. The stability of the Horn of Africa region is not of importance to Ethiopia alone, but to the entire East African Region. The jury is still out over Ahmed’s contentious deal with Somaliland, which had been viewed as his undoing of the stability of the region for which he had worked so hard to foster. Hopefully, the talks mediated by Turkey in late 2024 could deliver a peaceful and lasting solution.

To his credit, since his ascent to power, Ahmed has sustained the liberalisation of the country’s economy. He has opened the financial, telecommunications and retail sectors to international investors. This led to an investment by Safaricom in Ethiopia’s state-dominated telecommunications sector. While opening the economy to international investors, the prime minister counterbalanced the liberalisation project with the consolidation of about 40 state-owned enterprises to create the Ethiopian Investment Holdings. This allowed the country to put the many government entities under one enterprise to increase efficiencies in their structure, operations and governance.

Ethiopia has expressed an interest in privatisation, as seen with the mobile telephony transaction, but it is not rushing into privatisation at the expense of local control because that tends to give away the leverage of the state to too many shareholders, if done haphazardly.

This was the reason it took so long to have a stock exchange. The opening up of the economy should be done in a measured way, otherwise unfettered privatisation can lead to uncoordinated participation by foreign investors who have proven repeatedly that unless they are regulated by local interest, they can leave any economy at the mercy of wanton greed of the faceless and unscrupulous rulers of the world.

Ethiopians are very quick to remind one that they have never been colonised. Perhaps this is the reason they seem to be able to make their own luck by scripting their own civilisation. They have their own calendar, always set their own pace, and they make their own music on matters economic and financial. Watch all that come into play yet again. Ethiopia has a stock exchange – with only one company listed. Will it make its target of 50 listings in five years (or 90 in the next decade)? Being the country that always finds a way to make its own luck, Ethiopia will make this a success—ith the backing of Ethiopians as it always does in those ventures that truly matter.

Victor Kgomoeswana is the author of ‘Africa is Open for Business’ and ‘Africa Bounces Back’.

Conflicts and elections in Africa: mapping causes and leadership impact in 2025

Ras Adv Sipho Mantula takes a look at the current status of Africa after a bumper 2024 election year and the ongoing conflicts across the continent

 The unmatched nature of African conflicts and elections that took place in 2024 calls for a common sense clarification and understanding of what the causes and political leadership impact are to these unending wars in Sudan, South Sudan, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sahel region, and the Horn of Africa.

We cannot ignore the impact of armed conflicts on children around the world that has reached devastating and likely record levels in 2024 and which are likely to persist in 2025, according to the latest report of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which has painted a bleak image that “from Palestine to Myanmar, Haiti to Sudan, the world is experiencing the highest number of conflicts since the World War II. Almost 19% of the world’s children—over 473 million—now live in conflict zones, and 47.2 million have been displaced by conflict and violence”.

We would recall that the youth in Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Nigeria, and Mozambique also turned streets into warzones and sites of struggle, protesting government measures on tax and labour laws, rising food and fuel prices, and electoral delays and fraud that has been witnessed in Senegal and Mozambique in 2024 and early 2025.

The continent of Africa has been highly vulnerable to intra and inter- state wars, and election-related conflicts. This has prompted the hint that Africa is the home of wars and instability and political power manipulation.

Most tragic about these hidden faces and hands in the African conflicts and election fires is that they have defied any meaningful solution, and their negative destabilisation impact has hurt growth and development in Africa, while an end to them seems uncomprehensible because of this western appetite.

The grounded intellectual meaning and understanding of the African conflicts in 2024 are informed by the notion that conflict is a particular relationship between states or rival factions within a state, which implies subjective hostilities or tension manifested in subjective economic or military hostilities—what has played out in Sudan since 2023 until today and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Global conflicts or interstate African conflicts take place between two or more nations and involve forces of more than one state. It is appropriate to observe that Africa has experienced both types of conflict over the years since its liberation from its colonial masters and handlers.

However, Africa has also witnessed a third type of conflict, namely, internationalised internal armed conflict which has bearing on political, economic, and cultural matters. Such conflicts, which are military-civilian civil wars, have varying degrees of external involvement of the western powers. A case in point includes the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia in 2024.

We must unmask the push and pull factors of conflicts and election-related conflicts in Africa, which are driven by arbitrary borders created by the colonial powers since 1884-1885, imposed heterogeneous ethnic composition of African states, clumsy political leadership and election contestation by the young leaders against aged leadership in Africa, exploitation of the natural resources of Afrika, negative effect of external debt burden, and poverty.

The large scale of elections in 2024 has posed both challenges and leadership opportunities for the African continent’s political stability, governance, rule of law, and democratic merging.

The African elections held in 2024 in our analysis and observation were violent and non-violent, controllable and uncontrollable, dominant and non-dominant, and resolvable or insolvable.

On the positive note, Southern and Western Africa has seen four cases of peaceful transfers of power in the context of a changes in government. Firstly, having delayed elections in Senegal by former president Macky Sall, the presidential election held in March 2024 saw the youthful Bassirou Diomaye Faye elected with 54% of the vote.

The ruling Pastef party then managed a landslide majority in snap parliamentary elections in November 2024. Secondly, South Africa held its elections on 29 May 2024 but experienced the decline on voter turnout and had to navigate a coalition government at the national level for the first time since 1994. Thirdly, Botswana’s elections resulted in a peaceful transfer of power after the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) lost the elections for the first time since the country gained independence in 1966. After losing the elections, the BDP President committed to “respectfully step aside and participate in a smooth transition process ahead of inauguration” of the leader of Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), Adv Duma Gideon Boko.

The cases of South Africa, Botswana, Senegal, and Ghana have been lauded as building pillars of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG, 2012) which seeks “to entrench in the Continent a political culture of change of power based on the holding of regular, free, fair and transparent elections conducted by competent, independent and impartial national electoral bodies”.

Fourthly, another notable moment of pride during the Southern African elections this year was the election of the only female Head of State in the region. Her Excellency Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) secured 57.31% of the votes.

This represents a positive step towards meaningful representation of African women in positions of political leadership in the African continent and an example for other countries to follow despite a pending presidential electoral dispute lodged by the independent Patriots for Change (IPC) Presidential Candidate Panduleni Itula after the election announcement and proceeding in 2025.

Mapping and navigating ahead to the 2025 African conflicts and elections in Africa, we have to state that some of the key areas that require improvement will be on the regional economic bodies, the African Union and its member states to realise and implement all post-conflict reconstruction and election plan strategies.

We will propose that African conflicts in Sudan, DR Congo, Sahel region, and the Horn of Africa must end for the benefit of the African children and development of the continent. All conflicts in Africa in principle require a community-driven mediation by African experts, including women and youth as mediators. The role of western countries as external mediators requires the African continent to limit their role and accord them observer status and guarantors of the peace process.

The relationship between the military and the civilians must improve if we must tackle insecurity and electoral challenges in 2025.

The role of global, continental, and national media to cover the conflicts and elections must be objective to dispel the lie and detect fake news about African conflicts and elections.

The transitional justice mechanism is required to restore social cohesion, reparation, and justice to the communities affected by the conflicts—the case of Mozambique and DR Congo is urgent in 2025.

The African youth participation and ownership in the electoral processes on the continent needs to improve by enhancing the use and quality of technology in elections and providing young people with more opportunities in political leadership—the case of Botswana and South Africa youthful cabinet members.

Lastly, the election management bodies (EMBs) and domestic election observers in Africa require adequate funding by their member states and capacity building programmes to safeguard electoral processes on the continent, thereby enhancing electoral security and integrity as we navigate 2025.

Ras Adv Sipho Mantula is a Pan African Researcher at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs.

In conversation
with Mteto Nyati

Andre Walters recently received communication from Ann Bernstein about her conversation with Mteto Nyati, so he decided to take a look at what they spoke about. The discussion was mainly about Eskom’s turnaround strategy and the role of business and leadership principles in driving inclusive growth in that challenging environment.

Ann Bernstein is a South African analyst and commentator, and the Executive Director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise. She is said to be a prolific writer on South Africa’s social and economic policies. She is also known for her pro-business views about the contribution of corporations to social and economic development.

Mteto Nyati is the Chairman of Eskom, and he started off their conversation by speaking about his personal childhood development, which was also reflected in his career development, later. From what he said, it is clear that he believes that it has helped him to know how to deal effectively with the world that we are living in today.

He attributed Eskom’s recent recovery directly to what he described as the strong leadership and technical competencies of the new board of directors, which consists of engineers, chartered accountants, and specialists in organisational culture and labour relations. This board collaborates with its management and staff and it realises that the previous approach had been based on a miss-diagnosis of the problems that they were actually facing. The real challenges, he indicated, were not the ageing power stations, but rather a lack of proper maintenance; the flouting of standard operating procedures and the contracting of sub-standard companies to service power stations.

As the Chairman, Nyati has intervened on the issue of service agreements between Eskom and the companies that designed and built critical equipment. Apparently, ‘Localisation Rules’ had pushed power stations into working with local companies that frequently returned ‘serviced’ equipment in a worse condition than when it had been sent in.

The new board has also identified the eradicating of corruption as a critical priority. Eskom has established a Project Management Unit in the office of the CEO in order to drive consequence management and to collaborate with the SIU, and the police, in investigating fraud and corruption. So far, Eskom says that it has gathered detailed data through artificial intelligence and related technologies to monitor and connect the dots—identify individuals involved in corruption, and creating a clearer picture of what is actually happening.

Nyati also spoke about government and organised business coming together and working on tackling the crises in energy, crime, and logistics, which he sees as the correct priorities. To strengthen this partnership, Nyati thinks that the business sector must assert itself and more actively define the economic agenda.

He said: “We are not prisoners of our circumstances. You apply your mind to lift yourself out of your situation. It is really all about the choices that one makes, and that you do follow through on those ideas.”

Ann also asked him what he thinks of our new Government of National Unity (GNU). It appears that he rather likes it. He believes that the GNU is a result of the choices that we have made as South Africans. He thinks it is a good thing, and also spoke at length about the concept of ‘diversity’ and how that is central to where we need to be going as a country. He was therefore very direct when he said he wants us to “go back to the concept of diversity”.

According to Nyati, many of South Africa’s challenges can be said to be linked to a lack of competent, effective leaders. This challenge is exacerbated by a culture of being too respectful to the people in charge, which ensures that leaders are not held accountable for their failures.

Nyati sees the diversity in the GNU as a kind of strength that is increasing the likelihood that innovative solutions to South Africa’s greatest challenges will emerge.

He feels positive that the government and organised business are coming together to tackle the crises in energy, crime, and logistics, but he believes that the partnership would be strengthened if the business sector asserted itself more and played a stronger role in defining the economic agenda, along with government.

He said that that his technology background makes it clear to him that we need to understand that some of our leaders are serving us without respect and that we are not really holding our leaders accountable,.

“We may have great values, as a society, but we need to understand that we can challenge people that are in higher positions than us.” He feels that it is about a tradition of ‘having respect’. “You can see that things are going wrong but you don’t do anything about it. You are campaigning on the wrong side, but you don’t do anything to address it.”

He added: “At a personal level. I have had to adjust my levels of respect. As uncomfortable as it may be, there is a deep need in us to hold our leaders accountable.”

He also said that he believes that we are prisoners of our circumstances. You know you can be able to apply your mind and lift yourself out of your condition. It’s really all about the choices that you make and, then, making sure that you also follow through on your ideas.

He says that he learned from his mother about the value of working with other people and to listen to them. She was able to integrate their thoughts and to then execute those ideas. He said that this is something that he is still using up today, “because most of the people that know a lot are also the people that are the closest to our clients (or closest to the problems) and if we do not pay attention to what they say, or try and get their ideas, you may miss completely what is going on as things can change very fast in our environment.” He made it very clear that these are just some some of the lessons that he learned from his mother and that they still work in his life.

But he also learned some other very important and valuable lessons while he was studying. He says, for example, that he was fortunate to represent South Africa in the International Science Olympiad in London as one of the top maths and science students. At the time, they were studying Bantu education—an education-system that was meant to make black people to be inferior to everybody else.

“It is really all about the choices that we make, you know. I’m going to go back to the diversity that I mentioned earlier. When I look back at my own leadership journey, one of the things that continues to surprise me, is how teams that are diverse always outperform those teams that are is just one homogeneous kind of a team. And that is a fact that I’ve embraced since a long time ago. I’ve deliberately made sure that I put together teams that are that are representing different perspectives—it could be from a race perspective, a gender perspective or a question of age. It could be geography, you know.

“Make sure that you are bringing people that have got international experience. All of that helps the teams to be able to address the challenges that are in front of them and I find that those teams work better when I look at the GNU-construct. Many people think that the fact that all of these parties are coming from different perspectives is actually a weakness, but I think it’s a strength, you know, because it means that, yes, they may be coming from all of these different perspectives, but they’re trying to solve one problem. That is, how do we drive inclusive growth? So that is the question and they will be coming from different angles to try and address this thing and I believe that the solutions that they will be coming out with will be much richer. Solutions are much more practical—solutions! And they will be considered solutions. So I feel that this construction is actually a right one for our country at this time.

“And how have they done? I do think that it depends on the different Ministries and I cannot generalize about the GNU. Some of them are the way that they were in the past—not doing very well, you know, and some are clearly doing exceptionally well and making decisions and pushing the envelope, which is really what we expect as South Africans.

“It cannot be business as usual. We need to we need to come up with new ideas on how get this economy going and challenge some of the thinking that is out there and so I’m seeing all sides, you know, and I look at our own minister in the Energy and Electricity Is one of those ministers that I feel is doing exceptionally well and he’s in tune with what is going on is there, And I look at the minister of and Home Affairs–that’s another one that continues to be challenging the status quo, and making sure that you’re setting up structures that are going to be helping South Africa to be easy to deal to do business with.”

He does point out that all is not perfect.

“You go look closer and you start to realize that the wrong people have been asked to run some of our hospitals. The fact that you are a medical doctor does not always mean that you are the right person to be managing a hospital, which includes so many other things. You’re talking about logistics and making sure that you are managing the inventory. you’re managing people and creating a pipeline—all of that that’s leadership stuff!

“The same when you go to schools. You know our schools are failing. We’re spending so much money, but the outcomes of what we are putting in are not in line. There’s a huge disconnect there, but at the same time you’ll find this rural school, somewhere, that is doing exceptional and where year-after-year they don’t even have electricity. Some of them they don’t even have the Internet. They do not have tablets, but consistently they’re producing exceptional results! You look deeply; you’ll find that it is the Headmaster that it starts with.

“Maybe I’m stretching that too much?”

Here is the bottom line: he says: “We must hold our leaders accountable!”

Andre Walters is a veteran broadcaster.