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  Note: A podcast episode by WZB’s Soziologische Perspektiven auf die Corona-Krise with Joseph Harris on the same topic can be found here. South Africa was hit hard during the …
Continue reading "The Coronavirus Response in South Africa"
The post The Coronavirus Response in South Africa appeared first on Orders Beyond Borders.

Time can be cruel. Infatuations and honeymoons must reach their end. Emotions subside, our better selves fall, exhausted, by the wayside, and deeper character traits will out. A truly democratic South Africa, a 'rainbow nation', ...

On March 28, 2024, the ICJ issued its third provisional measures order in South Africa v Israel. The Court ordered further, more pointed, measures towards Israel to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza. In this blog post, I consider that the right to be heard in the course of this third order has not been fully guaranteed since the ICJ based its ruling on the international reports which were not provided, known, and considered by either of the parties. Moreover, I argue that the ICJ underscored its decision on humanitarian law rather than obligations to prevent genocide.

Andy Higginbottom summarises his report on corporate profits in South Africa. He asks a number of vital questions - who are the main corporate players in South African mining? Who profits from mining in South Africa? The principal data source is thirteen company annual reports for 2022, supplemented by relevant reporting and more analytical literature. Higginbottom argues that we must fight the latest chapter in imperialist neo-colonialism to ensure that Cecil Rhodes' structural legacy must fall.
The post Follow the money – corporate mining profits in South Africa first appeared on ROAPE.
The post Follow the money – corporate mining profits in South Africa appeared first on ROAPE.

In this article, Sandiswa Mapukata argues that the neoliberal economic restructuring and technological advancements led to the development of algorithms which govern the employment market. While the algorithms exacerbate work relations and racial gaps, they also create opportunities for the workers to challenge this system and defend their economic and political interests.   Introduction When … Continued

This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the wave of mass strikes of 1973 in Durban, South Africa. Early that year Coronation brick workers followed on the dock strike of October 1972 and unleashed a movement of one strike rolling on to the next. One of the major activists of the strike wave, David Hemson, writes on a human wave that arose from the depths of the apartheid barracks, factories and mills; spontaneous, irrepressible, powerful and momentous. The challenge of 1973 has yet to be fulfilled.
The post Frontline South Africa 1973: mass strikes and beyond first appeared on ROAPE.
The post Frontline South Africa 1973: mass strikes and beyond appeared first on ROAPE.

India's diplomatic, economic, and cultural engagements with Africa have grown substantially in the last three decades, though the drivers of the country's Africa policy have remained the same. African support will be needed to fuel India's economy and consolidate its position as a leading power in the Global South.

South Africa is moving away from the party that brought Nelson Mandela to power, and the nation beyond Apartheid. For many, however, the future looks bleak, even with a potential change in leader.

This article looks at South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and what will happen during the legal proceedings.

An independent South African investigation found "no evidence" that Pretoria loaded arms onto a Russian ship when it docked in Simon's Town late last year, contradicting accusations made by the U.S. ambassador to South Africa in May.
"When all matters are considered, none of the allegations made about the supply of weapons to Russia have been proven to be true," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, adding that the accusation "had a most damaging effect on our currency, our economy, and our standing in the world."
Ramaphosa's fiery remarks highlighted the extent to which the allegations have soured U.S.-South Africa ties, which were already badly strained following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Pretoria has frustrated Washington by refusing to isolate the Kremlin and continuing to work with the Russian military, while South Africa has grown increasingly indignant at the idea that it must toe the U.S. line on the conflict.
But the results of the inquiry, which was led by an apparently trustworthy former judge, provide a chance to soothe growing tensions between the two countries. The State Department took a step in that direction Tuesday when spokesperson Vedant Patel said the U.S. appreciates "the seriousness with which the panel of inquiry in South Africa undertook to investigate" the incident, though he stopped short of endorsing the findings completely.
For South Africa, the motivation to improve relations with the U.S. is clear. While the country's ruling party has long insisted on neutrality in great power disputes, Pretoria has a much closer economic relationship with Washington than it does with Moscow.
That relationship relies in no small part on American goodwill since much of the countries' bilateral trade is underpinned by the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which allows South Africa to export certain goods to the U.S. without tariffs. Congress will have to decide in 2025 whether Pretoria gets to stay in the program.
But a drop in tensions could also have big upsides for the U.S. as it navigates choppy geopolitical waters ahead. Washington's insistence that other countries toe its line on the war has created a surge of frustration among leaders in the Global South, many of whom evince little interest in choosing a side in great power disputes. This is perhaps one reason that so many states now seek to join BRICS, a geopolitical grouping focused on economic independence from the West and led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. By papering over issues with South Africa, the United States could build a roadmap for improving relations with the Global South more broadly.
Improved relations with South Africa could also provide a boost to efforts to end the war in Ukraine, which has largely been locked into a bloody stalemate in recent months. As Philani Mthembu of the Institute for Global Dialogue recently argued, Ukraine and Russia have been fighting a second war for hearts and minds in Africa, which "may leave the doors in Kyiv and Moscow open to further dialogue" with African leaders pushing for a peace deal.
"The African peace initiative may thus not be the main negotiation process that resolves questions such as the future of the European security architecture, but it can still play an important role in focussing the world's attention on dialogue instead of further military escalation," Mthembu wrote. If the United States chose to quietly endorse this approach, it could help build momentum toward a peace deal, no matter how improbable such a result seems today.Ramaphosa and President Joe Biden will have a chance to start mending ties this weekend at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India. Though progress on Ukraine is likely to be limited, Biden has reportedly endorsed the African Union's bid to become a full member of the G20, helping to fulfill a long-time South African goal. The move suggests that, public differences aside, the U.S. may finally be ready to bury the hatchet.In other diplomatic news related to the war in Ukraine:— Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he expects that the Black Sea Grain Initiative will be revived "in a short time" following meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to CNBC. Putin, who tore up the deal in July, told reporters that he would only rejoin the agreement if provisions related to the export of Russian agricultural products are "fully implemented." — On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken took a surprise trip to Kyiv, where he announced a new tranche of aid for Ukraine and batted down accusations that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed to make meaningful progress, according to the New York Times. Blinken also sought to tamp down concerns that a series of corruption scandals in Ukraine could affect American support for the country. "We're engaged in assisting the government of Ukraine on anticorruption efforts and on efforts to ensure accountability and full transparency of all the assistance we're providing, as well as the security of U.S.-provided defense articles and technologies," he said.— Western officials are pushing the United Arab Emirates to stop allowing Russia to avoid sanctions by purchasing dual-use goods, according to the Wall Street Journal. The UAE has reportedly become a prime intermediary for Russian businesses looking to get their hands on Western computer chips and electronics. Notably, Abu Dhabi has not joined sanctions against the Kremlin but has tried to avoid gaining a reputation as a market for illicit goods.— Robert Fico, the leading candidate in Slovakia's upcoming elections, is a staunch opponent of aid to Ukraine, raising the prospect that the country could split with fellow NATO allies and European Union members over the conflict, according to the New York Times. Fico's popularity stems in part from the fact that the Slovakian public remains divided over the conflict, with only 40 percent of the country saying that Russia is solely responsible for the war. Notably, the leftist and former prime minister has said that he would oppose Ukraine joining NATO, preferring instead to end the war by formalizing Kyiv's status as a buffer between Russia and the West.U.S. State Department news:When asked if the U.S. believes a diplomatic resolution of the war is likely, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel emphasized American support for Ukraine's peace plan. "The Ukrainians and President [Volodymyr] Zelensky have very clearly laid out a proposal for a just and durable peace and a conclusion to this war," Patel said. "President Putin and the Russian Federation have continuously not been interested in engaging in these kinds of discussions."

In its wise Order of 26 January 2024, the ICJ managed to make a virtue out of a necessity: Israel was not prohibited from continuing its combat operations but was reminded of its strict compliance with international humanitarian law and its obligation to avoid genocide. At the same time, the ICJ reiterated the requirement to respect the most fundamental rights and the core of humanitarian law to all warring factions. Despite still essentially being a court for inter-state disputes – it put the individual, the human being, at the centre. Henceforth, the ICJ's order of provisional measures is a Solomonic decision at its best and a further step towards the "humanization of international law".

On 23 January 2024, Nicaragua applied for permission to intervene in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel). Nicaragua's application will drag proceedings out one way or another. Potentially it means the Court must hear and decide upon a third version of events, clouding South Africa's original case. If this case is really about addressing what the Court described as a 'human tragedy' in Gaza and not just about political point-scoring, Nicaragua, by trying to help, may just have made things worse.

ThemeThe International Court of Justice has issued an Order regarding provisional measures requested by South Africa against Israel for the possible violation of its obligations in accordance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. SummaryThe International Court of Justice has confirmed, by an overwhelming majority of its judges, that it is plausible […]
La entrada Prospects and implications of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in the case of South Africa against Israel se publicó primero en Elcano Royal Institute.

Victor D. Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo's Korea, a New History of South & North is a highly engaging essay written by two prominent academics in Korean Studies for the general public. The authors share their decades of research, observations, and engagement with Koreans, North and South, from an American and European perspective.

Isaac Samuel is an independent researcher whose work focuses on African history and economics. His prolific output on pre-colonial African history can be found on his blog AfricanHistoryExtra, which as a collective body of extraordinary scholarship puts the lie to the still widely held belief that – in the words of esteemed University of Oxford historian Hugh Trevor-Rope in the 1960s – there is no African history, "only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness". Here, in a blistering account, Samuel shows how German philosopher Georg Hegel – one of the most influential figures of 19th century philosophy – wilfully misinterpreted first-hand accounts of the Asante kingdom from the 18th century. The result, both in the work of Hegel and those who followed him, was the construction of an absurdly fictional account of African society, steeped in popular beliefs of his time about the continent's supposed backwardness, that deliberately subsumed the richness and complexity of Asante history in order to legitimate imperial expansion and colonial rule.
The post How Hegel's Deliberate Ignorance of African History Legitimated the Colonisation of Africa first appeared on ROAPE.
The post How Hegel’s Deliberate Ignorance of African History Legitimated the Colonisation of Africa appeared first on ROAPE.