Image: Bill Oxford (Unsplash) Human trafficking is not a new phenomenon, but rather one that has recently captured the public’s attention as conspiracy theories move into the mainstream and kidnappings become ever more prevalent in South Africa (SA). While quantifying the crime is a statistical and elusive nightmare, we can be fairly certain that traffickers consolidate [...]
As South Africa peers over the edge of a fiscal cliff, it is critical that resources be directed towards strengthening social cohesion and protecting those on the margins of society, rather than throwing billions at failed projects like South African Airways. Material injustice continues to haunt South Africa’s pursuit of an inclusive, reconciled post-apartheid society. The [...]
The documentary film 1972 Broken Hearts, launched by IJR in partnership with The Institute of Scientific Research for Development (IRSD), is both a means of documenting a violent and traumatic past and a way of paying tribute to victims of a tragedy that gripped Burundi from April to July 1972. This tragedy is known in Burundi [...]
The Equality Unit of the University of Stellenbosch has been running Instagram Live sessions in August to highlight issues that affect women in women’s month. On the 12th August, Felicity Harrison from the IJR Sustained Dialogues Programme participated in a discussion facilitated by Yamkela Tyapha on the topic of catcalling – why it is problematic and [...]
Waking up to the news of gender-based violence (GBV) and the brutal murders of women, children, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community is a daily occurrence that has become normalised and ingrained within our social fabric. In South Africa, rates of sexual violence are unacceptably high and comparable to contexts of active conflict; which is yet [...]
On August 13, the South African Reconciliation Barometer (SARB) project hosted a webinar entitled, ‘The State of South Africa’s Democracy: Insights from Afrobarometer and the South African Reconciliation Barometer surveys’. The webinar sought to present and explain South Africans’ perceptions of democracy. Afrobarometer and SARB project leaders, Dominique Dryding and Mikhail Moosa presented their findings. These [...]
“There is not a single country on the African continent where democracy is firmly consolidated and secure” – Larry Diamond Source: Fred Moon (Unsplash) The optimism washed in by the third wave of democracy has seen a receding tide and with it a gradual decay of democratic institutions. Across the continent, we are forced to uncouple [...]
As the country moves to level 3 of lockdown, the opening up of the economy comes as a welcome relief to all South African’s, including the most economically marginalised. While the Covid-19 crisis spreads through the country, the media has put on raging narrative inducing a dichotomy of lives vs livelihoods. Yet, whichever side of the debate you buy into, it is always the most vulnerable segments of society that will bear a disproportionate burden of losses to both lives and livelihoods.
Freedom Day, a public holiday commemorating South Africa’s first democratic elections, passed with a bitter sense of irony.
The answers are in the questions. The COVID-19 pandemic has been the single biggest event to confront the globe for the last one hundred years. The world has moved on in leaps and bounds since the last global pandemic, yet, we were caught unawares. There is no vaccine on the horizon and the world has seen [...]
