THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Dec

06

2024

Ghana heads to the polls: why the economy is the biggest issue for many voters

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE outcome and aftermath of Ghana’s 2024 elections will be a key test of whether the West African nation can find a balance between the dual objectives of living within its means and achieving economic growth that creates sustainable jobs for its teeming youth. Ghanaians are heading to the polls amid rising poverty and high cost of living. Ghana has been in an economic crisis since 2022 when it was forced to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be able to meet its payments to the rest of the world and restore the health of government finances.…

Dec

04

2024

By LAURA CARVALHO

South Africa has taken over the G20 presidency from Brazil – what lessons can it learn?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SOUTH Africa has taken over the presidency of the world’s premier economic forum, the G20, from Brazil. The G20 presidency operates on a troika system made up of the current, previous and next holders. The three members cooperate with one another in preparing for an annual summit. This means that South Africa will be working with Brazil and the US (2026 presidency). The G20 members – 19 countries plus the European Union and the African Union –account for about 80% of global GDP, 75% of global exports and 60% of the world’s population. The Conversation Africa asked Laura Carvalho, a…

Nov

30

2024

By JONATHAN POWELL and SALAH BEN HAMMOU

Gabon’s coup leaders have changed the constitution to entrench their power – it’s a growing trend in west Africa

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MORE than a year after a military coup, Gabonese citizens held a referendum in which they approved a new draft constitution. The constitutional revisions targeted dynastic rule by introducing presidential term limits and banning family members of a sitting president from running for office. A controversial aspect of the new constitution is that it allows coup leader General Brice Oliqui Nguema to run for president in the country’s general presidential election slated for August 2025. Civil society and opposition figures have expressed concerns about the possibility of the general’s candidacy. They argue that it would contradict the military’s earlier promises…

Nov

28

2024

By WILLIE BURGER

Breyten Breytenbach: a masterful poet, jailed for his politics, who reimagined South Africa

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

BREYTEN Breytenbach (1939-2024) was an artist, poet, thinker and outspoken political activist who changed the literary landscape in South Africa. He died on 24 November in Paris, where he had first been exiled in the 1960s. Exploring themes of identity, exile and justice in a career spanning almost six decades, his paintings were exhibited in major galleries and he was awarded prestigious literary prizes. Breytenbach was a master of metaphor. Metaphors transcend the literal meanings of words, creating new associations and images that stir the reader’s imagination. But his metaphors leave all definitions and theories about metaphors short. By joining…

Nov

27

2024

By LLOYD G. ADU AMOAH

Ghana’s outgoing president Nana Akufo-Addo failed to live up to expectations – a look at his time in office

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

FOR the first time in seven years, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will end the year without Ghana’s presidency weighing on his shoulders. Ghana goes to the polls on 7 December. Whatever the outcome, Akufo-Addo has served two terms as president and will be retiring from a long political life. Akufo-Addo became president in 2017 with a pedigree in both modern and traditional statecraft. Three of his relatives – Edward Akufo-Addo (his father), J.B. Danquah and William Ofori-Atta – were among the architects of Ghana’s first political party, the United Gold Coast Convention. As a university student in the early 1960s,…

Nov

25

2024

By The African Mirror

Tribute to Enos Ngutshane: From student revolutionary to national leader

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

JOVIAL RANTAO IN the annals of South Africa's liberation struggle, certain places become sacred ground, and certain moments become turning points. Naledi High School in Soweto stands as one such hallowed space, where in 1976, the seeds of revolution were planted in the fertile soil of youth resistance. It was here that Enos Ngutshane, a matriculant whose courage would shape history, penned the fateful letter to apartheid education minister Minister M.C. Botha that became the first formal challenge to the oppressive language policy. But when the minister's silence spoke volumes about the regime's intransigence, it became clear that stronger action…

Nov

23

2024

By TRACY-LYNN FIELD

Illegal mining clampdown in South Africa: treating desperate people like criminals is an injustice – legal scholar

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ILLEGAL artisanal gold mining in South Africa is in the spotlight again. Under Operation Vala Umgodi (“plug the hole”), South African authorities have since December 2023 been trying to disrupt the illicit gold mining economy by cutting off water, food and other supplies to the miners working underground. The operation is an attempt to “stamp the authority” of the state after a series of criminal incidents in 2021 forced the government to confront the illicit gold trade as a threat to national security. In my view, the government’s approach, which sees all artisanal mining through a criminality lens, is inappropriate…

Nov

22

2024

By ABBEY MAKOE

Be careful of foreign interference in SA’s stable democracy

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE controversial US NGO, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), is holding a conference in Johannesburg under the banner of democracy and associated freedoms. The conference began on November 20th and runs until November 22nd. The NED was established in 1983 during the Ronald Reagan administration and has since played a pivotal role in promoting US foreign policy and interests. It has a chequered history that includes sophisticated means of rebranding the image of the US both domestically and internationally. Thanks to a substantial war chest, the organization funds pro-Washington NGOs and has often been accused of playing a sly…

Nov

21

2024

By AMAKA EMORDI

Senegal’s elections were a triumph for democracy – what went right

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SENEGAL’S President Bassirou Diomaye Faye unexpectedly called a snap legislative election which was held on 17 November. Faye was sworn in as president in April after a tumultuous period, triggered when former president Macky Sall postponed a scheduled presidential election. Mass protests followed, exposing the fragility of Senegal’s democratic institutions. Sall eventually reversed his stance and elections followed. With the snap legislative election concluded, political scientist Amaka Emordi takes the temperature in the country. How important are these elections? Is democracy secure in Senegal? The recent electoral transition in Senegal and the legislative election reflect the critical importance of upholding…

Nov

20

2024

By JOHN TADEN; DANIEL BANINI and KINGSLEY AGORMOR

Ghana elections: swing voting is on the rise, shaping outcomes – a look at what’s driving this

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

GHANAIAN elections have become much more challenging for politicians. In the past, they have often been characterised as nothing more than an ethnic headcount. But since the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, there’s been a growing share of swing voters. We discovered this trend in a study, which corroborates others. We define a swing voter as someone who has voted for a different party in the previous four presidential elections or one who has cast a split-ticket ballot during that period. As researchers of democratic developments on the African continent, we were interested in the increasing power swings on the…