Tag: public policy

In an era where borders are no longer physical, South Africa is drawn into a new kind of conflict. This conflict is not fought with tanks and missiles. Instead, it is waged with lines of code and silent intrusions. From local municipalities to national ministries, government systems face relentless attack. The digital battlefield is here. Cyberspace has become the next frontier of conflict.

In a video clip that has gone viral on social media, a South African TikToker by the name of "Voice of RSA" (the Voice hereafter) aims at what he calls the dominance of "trickle-down economics". The TikToker argues that economic growth during the presidencies of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki was essentially jobless

In the recent case of SMD Technologies (Pty) Ltd v Tavares and Another ([2024] ZALCJHB 546), the Labour Court upheld the enforceability of restraint of trade agreements in South African employment law. The court emphasised that these restraints must be reasonable and must protect legitimate business interests.

The Western (including South African) judiciary is a peculiar thing. To defy a judge is to commit an offence to society so great that most people do not even consider the merits of the defiance, and rush immediately to demand punishment. The recent controversy around Judge Mandlenkosi Motha is a case in point.

Life is an endless series of problems, all of them offering competing, imperfect solutions. But not all solutions are actually solutions; some are mistakes. I know of no system or individual that hasn’t made mistakes. The usual wisdom passed on in this matter is that one should learn from mistakes - that the intelligent learn from their errors and correct them.

The South African courts have by and large, consistently upheld an employer’s right to restrain an employee form unfairly competing with a former employer where certain conditions have been met. These include the employer being able to show a protectable interest and a properly drafted restraint.

Eskom cannot be trusted with load-limiting, as the same kind of centralisation is what caused the energy crisis in the first place. We will publish a research paper on privatisation later this year, that will set out how best to go about the privatisation of Eskom. This comes as the embattled state-owned enterprise seems to be fumbling from one bad idea to the next as it tries to stabilise power supply.

Statistics South Africa has announced that South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to a record high 35.3% in the last quarter of year 2021. This was an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the previous quarterly unemployment rate. The expanded definition of unemployment rate is at 46.2%.

It seems conceivable that the state of disaster declared under the Disaster Management Act (DMA) in 2020 might soon end. This would involve the removal of various regulatory restrictions South Africans have been burdened with to cope with the spread of COVID-19.

South Africa loses R700 million a day for every stage of Eskom’s rolling blackouts. Given these catastrophic economic challenges created by the collapse of electricity infrastructure, an urgent alternative energy supply is needed to stabilise the grid.