Ph. Information integrity and human checks are at the heart of the matter. Alan Warburton/betterimagesofai.org/© BBC, CC BY Nomalanga Mashinini, University of the Witwatersrand South Africa’s first attempt to establish a binding artificial intelligence (AI) policy framework came to an abrupt halt just 16 days after it was officially gazetted. On 10 April,
Wikus Kruger, University of Cape Town A South African solar manufacturer, ARTsolar, is taking the government and several renewable energy developers to court. The case focuses on local content rules for renewable energy projects. ARTsolar says it invested in new manufacturing capacity because it expected these rules to lead to orders for locally
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Columbia University and Imraan Valodia, University of the Witwatersrand Given the escalating scale of inequality in the world, shouldn’t countries be banding together to set up an international panel on the issue, along the same lines as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body set up
Danny Bradlow, University of Pretoria The end of South Africa’s G20 presidency does not mean the end of its ability or responsibility to promote the issues it prioritised during 2025. It can still advocate for action on some of these issues through its further participation in the G20 and in other international and
Derek Yu, University of the Western Cape and Simbarashe Murozvi, University of the Western Cape Child labour is a big concern across the world. It is particularly acute in countries in the global south, where it is estimated that about 160 million children are engaged in child labour, about 87 million of them
Roger Southall, University of the Witwatersrand South Africans are wearily attuned to governments’ Orwellian misuse of language. After all, South Africa is a country where a one-time government passed a law (the Natives Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents Act of 1952) which extended rather than abolishing the notorious pass system. This
Guy Plint examines one of the dinosaur tracks, which is above his head. Annemarie Plint, CC BY-NC-ND Guy Plint, Western University and Charles Helm, Nelson Mandela University Dinosaurs have captured people’s imagination ever since their bones and teeth were first scientifically described in 1822 by geologist and palaeontologist Gideon Mantell in England. Dinosaur
Danny Bradlow, University of Pretoria South Africa took over the presidency of the G20 at the end of 2024. Since then the world has become a more complex, unpredictable and dangerous place. The most powerful state in the world, the US, seems intent on undermining the existing order that it created and on
Roger Lawrence Gibson, University of the Witwatersrand and Deon van Niekerk, Rhodes University On a Sunday morning in late August 2024 a nine-year-old girl named Eli-zé du Toit was sitting on her grandparents’ porch near a small town in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, when she heard a long rumble, then heard a
Alseno Kagiso Mosai, University of Pretoria and Hlanganani Tutu, University of the Witwatersrand Highly toxic metals are leaking out of nine abandoned mines in Krugersdorp, 32km west of Johannesburg, South Africa. The metals include uranium, arsenic, cadmium, chromium and mercury. This acid mine drainage – when water mixes with heavy metals in mines