Are the talented ones appointed? An important question, because corruption thrives on rigging selection and appointment processes. In keeping with the French saying, carrière est ouverte aux talents (positions are open to those with talents), the answer to the question requires accepting…
This talk was a little different for me. I have used WordPress for years and have started to learn about building membership sites and applications. I enjoyed presenting at WordCamp Johannesburg 2018. The presentation focused on testing and validating ideas…
Al Jazeera English produced an excellent case study on xenophobia in South Africa I would highly recommend reading the entire case study. I contributed a small part to the case study. I was asked for a comment on the ease…
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene, in his inaugural budget speech, offers this piece of wisdom, “The challenge of governance is to choose wisely between competing alternatives.” This takeaway statement is as true of Minister Nene’s inaugural budget speech, as it is…
Have we reached the end of the road for redistribution in South Africa? Recent publications by the World Bank and the South African Communist Party (SACP) suggest that the time for redistribution may well be over. The oddness of the…
How do we measure the performance of the South African budget? The message from Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s inaugural Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement suggests dual objectives. Minister Nene has cut the expenditure ceiling and capped spending on items such as…
Presidents’ relish shorthand descriptions of the agenda they are implementing. In Jacob Zuma’s first term of office, the term “faster change” played that role. Bureaucrats and politicians quickly took up this term not merely to demonstrate loyalty to a newly…
The African National Congress has recently launched its Imvuselelo (Revival) Campaign. At the launch, President Jacob Zuma indicated it means a “back to basics campaign”. The campaign aims to reconnect with voters and drive membership. The campaign requires new members to…
South Africans of all stripes often lament the general lack of entrepreneurial success and limited support for its development in the country. So when President Jacob Zuma created a new small business ministry, the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD),…