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From a policy perspective, the question naturally arises as to whether there have been major changes in policy making and associated issues in South Africa since 1994. Arguably, the first five years or so focused on institutional reforms and legislative interventions. In the late 1990s the South African government established specific processes and institutions for policy development and coordination. In 2005-6, specific processes and institutions for long-term planning and monitoring and evaluation were formally established. The paper examines the evolution of policy making and coordination in South Africa since the late 1990s, it also reflects on monitoring and evaluation as well as long-term planning. The erstwhile Policy Coordination and Advisory Services (PCAS), which had been the main engine of policy (coordination and other aspects) in post-apartheid South Africa that was established towards the end of 1997 in the Office of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki (at the time) was disbanded in 2010. The PCAS, popularly known as the Policy Unit, coordinated all policies and reforms, and led in planning as well as monitoring and evaluation, among other responsibilities. From 2010, functions were institutionalised or strengthened (e.g. government departments have been established to deal with planning as well as monitoring and evaluation). There have not been major shifts and/or changes in policy coordination, planning as well as monitoring and evaluation since the late 1990s. However, there appears to be a shift in emphasis to focusing more on implementation. This might have been one of the biggest mistakes of the Jacob Zuma administration because capacity for policy thinking is critical. It would seem that the Thabo Mbeki administration focused specifically on policy. The Nelson Mandela administration, which was a Government of National Unity, was largely focused on various policy, legislative and institutional reforms with very limited capacity for policy making, coordination and monitoring and evaluation as well as long-term planning.

South Africans often proudly proclaim that our Constitution is one of the most progressive in the world. Yet if you ask most South Africans how they really feel about gay rights, abortion and the death penalty, their answers, more often than not, contradict the values enshrined in the Constitution. (Ahmed 2014) This is the sobering assessment of the Chief Executive of the South African Human Rights Commission 20 years into democratic South Africa. The document adopted by The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996 was considered an exemplary showpiece for the new democratic, human rights based era — embraced as "proudly South African" among the world's most enlightened legal frameworks. Taking stock almost two decades later, however, constitutionality seems to have not yet been deeply and firmly anchored in public awareness or ingrained into a ] social fabric guiding the fundamental values, ethics and norms as reflected by ordinary public perception and opinion. Nor have policy makers in the government seemingly internalised an unconditional respect for and recognition of the governance principles enshrined in this Constitution, as some recent examples seem to suggest. The current controversy around the "spy tapes", but even more so the contested role of the public protector — dubbed "a jewel in South Africa's constitutional crown" (Pieters 2014) — and her stance with regard to Nkandla and the obligations of the head of state to respond to her recommendations are obvious tips of the iceberg. But current discourses at the same time are a mirror image of the ongoing struggles over the power of definition and the interpretation, as well as adherence, to the rules of the game as laid down in the normative framework. As constitutions elsewhere, there is a discrepancy between what is stated, how it ought to be understood and interpreted, how it should be adhered to and applied, and what the intended effects, as well as the real consequences are. It therefore is not by accident that debates and contestations over the meaning and implications of constitutional principles are an eminently political affair and an integral part of governance. It would be more worrying, if this would not be the case, since this would suggest that those in control over society reign supreme in the sense of governing without checks and balances. So then let's have a closer look at the issues at stake.

The interaction between macroeconomics and sustainable development is important to all countries. This relationship is of particular concern to developing countries where the economic and natural resource bases are often more closely intertwined than in industrialized nations. A research programme for investigating these issues in South Africa was initiated by the Macroeconomics Programme Office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (Washington, DC, USA), funded with a grant from GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit). It was carried out by a number of local research teams under the guidance of a broad steering committee and under the management of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. For the purposes of a manageable research project, two areas were selected where the South African economy and environment strongly interact - water and energy - together with a number of important economic sectors that use water and energy as key inputs in their production processes. The research examined macroeconomic and environmental interactions in these complexes of sectors, with particular emphasis on the effects of changing pricing and regulatory regimes for water and energy. This article presents and discusses first the analytical framework, followed by the results in each sector, and closes with some general policy conclusions with regard to the macroeconomy and the environment. (Dev South Afr/DÜI)

This paper conducts a review of the literature on skills shortages in South Africa. It is demonstrated that different Government departments have different views concerning the definition of skills shortages. This is largely due to the omission in any official government literature of tying the concept of 'skills shortages' to productivity.

"This book presents a new paradigm for attending to gender-based violence (GBV) social media discourse among marginalised black women in South Africa. Focusing on the intersections of television and social media, the study charts the morphing and merging of the "inside" of the soap opera and the "outside" of the real world, amid a rise in feminist social media activism. The analysis begins with coverage of gender-based violence in a long-running South African soap opera and social media discussion of these issues, in parallel with real world events and the collective social media response. The author offers pertinent insights into audiences in sub-Saharan Africa, presenting a new feminist trajectory for women and activism in the region. Offering new insights into an important issue, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of gender, cultural studies, film studies, television studies, sociology, development studies, feminism, media and journalism"--

Überarbeitung eines Papiers für die Konferenz "Sicherheit und Geheimdienste in Südafrika nach der Aparheid" (Institute for Strategic Studies, Pretoria 19.08.1992). Der Verfasser skizziert die Entwicklung südafrikanischer Geheimdienste seit dem Austritt aus dem Commonwealth 1961, vor allem das National Security Management System (NSMS). Er erwähnt allgemeine Überlegungen zum Thema in westlichen Staaten, besonders in USA und Kanada; er stellt fest, daß Literatur über Interventionen westlicher Geheimdienste in Afrika existiert, jedoch wenig über die Geheimdienste afrikanischer Regierungen bekannt ist. Für die Zukunft Südafrikas geht er von den Policy Guidelines des ANC (Mai 1992) aus und folgert, daß Geheimdienste künftig durch "institutionalisiertes öffentliches Mißtrauen" gezügelt und kritischer Diskussion ausgesetzt sein müssen, u.a. durch überproportionale Vertretungen von Oppositionsparteien in parlamentarischen Kontrollgremien. Der Beitrag enthält zahlreiche Verweise auf südafrikanische und internationale Literatur. (APAF-Ans)

Analyse des obligatorischen Waffenembargos gegen die Republik Südafrika aus der Sicht der RSA-Regierung. Ausführlich werden neben der einschlägigen Resolution 418 (1977) des Sicherheitsrates auch seine Resolution 558 (1984) zitiert, die zum freiwilligen Boykott (Importverzicht) von Waffen aus der RSA aufruft, sowie das Anti-Apartheid-Gesetz der USA (1986) und das RSA-Weißbuch zur Verteidigung und Waffenversorgung (1986). Der Verfasser räumt ein, daß die RSA Probleme hat, verlorene Waffensysteme wie z.B. Mirage-Kampfflugzeuge zu ersetzen; er betont jedoch die Leistungen des RSA-Rüstungskonzerns Armscor im "Mini-Wettrüsten gegen die UdSSR als Hauptlieferanten für Cuba und Angola" sowie im Waffenexport. An die Westmächte richtet der Verfasser das Argument, alle Sanktionen führten zu zweckwidrigen Nebenwirkungen und sollten deshalb zugunsten von "positiver Einwirkung und Dialog" aufgegeben werden; dies sei allerdings bei Resolutionen des Sicherheitsrates von Zustimmung der UdSSR und VR China abhängig. Der Verfasser ist Direktor des Instituts für Strategische Studien der Universität Pretoria. (APAF-Ans)

Renewable energy and clean energy have been on the global agenda for energy transition for quite a long time but recently gained strong momentum, especially with the anticipated depletion of fossil fuels alongside increasing environmental degradation from their exploitation and the changing climate caused by their excessive carbon emissions. Despite this, Africa's pursuit to transition to a green economy using renewable energy resources still faces constraints that hamper further development and commercialization. These may include socio-economic, technical, political, financial, and institutional policy framework barriers. Although hydrogen demand is still low in Southern Africa, the region can meet the global demands for green hydrogen as a major supplier because of its enormous renewable energy resource-base. This article reviews existing renewable energy resources and hydrogen energy policies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The significance of this review is that it explores how clean energy technologies that utilize renewable energy resources address the United Nations sustainable development goals (UN SDGs) and identifies the hydrogen energy policy gaps. This review further presents policy options and recommends approaches to enhance hydrogen energy production and ramp the energy transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to a hydrogen energy-based economy in Southern Africa. Concisely, the transition can be achieved if the existing hydrogen energy policy framework gap is narrowed by formulating policies that are specific to hydrogen development in each country with the associated economic benefits of hydrogen energy clearly outlined.

This anthropological study describes how disabled activist and politicians transcend race segregation, exclusions, discrimination and make disability and ability in disability real in the eyes of the nation. Based upon interviews with 15 parliamentarians with disability (MP) and participations observation in the National Parliament, between 2005 and 2006, this article disentangle inclusion/ exclusion in a particular historical context and situate the role disabled politicians in building a new South Africa. In post-apartheid, exclusion is linked to 'disadvantage communities'. These new political positions created can be traced back to the introduction of ubuntu as connected with disability and ability in new nation, as well as the association between physical disability and the structural disabilities associated with the apartheid regime. Such political narrative strategies served to create a new broad relational understanding of disability, bringing new political capital to people with disabilities and interconnect disability in the new nationhood.

The challenge of transforming entire economies is enormous; even more so if a country is as fossil fuel based and emission intensive as South Africa. However, in an increasingly carbon constrained world and already now facing climate change impacts South Africa has to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity soon and decidedly. The South African electricity sector is a vital part of the economy and at the same time contributes most to the emissions problem. Several policy papers have been drafted and published by the South African government to enhance energy efficiency and promote renewable energy. However, they fail to show large-scale effects. This reveals a gap between policy planning and actual implementation. The paper discusses the potentials and possible shortcomings of the existing policy schemes and identifies the main factors leading to the implementation gap. It furthermore proposes measures to enhance implementation. The major social barrier identified in the paper is the inherent power constellation of the South African energy sector, which is dominated by few para-statal enterprises. Their core competencies are fossil-fuel technology based, so they have no incentives to foster renewable energies. This power constellation crucially affects the energy innovation system, biasing research as well as education towards fossil-fuel technologies. The structure of the energy sector furthermore prejudices relevant policy making, reduces the incentives of effective clean energy policy implementation and thus leads to a situation of 'carbon lockin'. Another barrier is based in the economics of renewable energy technologies, i.e. their cost and risk structures. As most renewable energies are more expensive than conventional technologies, they offer no incentives for policy makers to support rapid deployment. Despite the necessity to deploy these technologies, their cost structure collides with the policy goal of cheap electricity provision and electrification of the poor parts of the South African population.

Freedom of expression is a core liberty for all constitutional democratic systems. It ensures that ideas, opinions, and beliefs can be circulatedand discussed among individuals with no governmental interference. This vital freedom means more than freely expressing opinions: it securesthe possibility to seek, receive, and impart information. Indeed, these three features—seeking, receiving, imparting—should all be consideredwhen freedom of expression is under analysis, particularly if we consider that whensomeone's freedom of expression is limited, someone else will be deprived of the chance of hearing that idea. The South African case under scrutiny concerns the attempt to prosecute the president of a political party known as Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), for having made a series of statements exhorting his supporters to unlawfully occupy "the land of South Africa".

This article introduces the topic of democratic challenges and opportunities by referring to the nature of democracy and the proportional representation electoral system as applied in South Africa. The dominance of the ruling African National Congress and the fragmentation of the opposition are referred to. The centralisation of power is also discussed, as are the characteristics of South African society, which remains an open society. A blurring between the party and the state has taken place, and the point is made that there is no attested case where simple majoritarianism has sustained democracy in a divided society. The conclusion drawn is that, on the tenth anniversary of South Africa's transition, the quality of the country's democracy receives a mixed report. (Politeia/DÜI)

Ideologische Einordnung der sozialistischen Regime Afrikas aus südafrikanischer Sicht