The newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr. Senzeni Zokwana, inherits a complex and divisive set of governance challenges within South Africa’s fisheries sector. Recent developments, however, suggest that his tenure may present an important opportunity to effect meaningful change and set South African fisheries on a more sustainable and prosperous path.
The world trading system is at a critical juncture. This particularly concerns the drawn out Doha Round which, until the WTO’s Bali Ministerial Conference in December 2013, had been at an impasse since 2008.
Since China hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics there has been a marked increase in the active bidding and subsequent hosting of global mega-events by countries considered ‘rising’ in international affairs. In 2010 the Commonwealth Games was hosted in India, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the World Expo in China.
Developing countries need to grow their economies to meet the needs of their people, while ensuring that the productivity and viability of the underlying ecosystems are maintained at healthy levels.
This briefing discusses the challenges and opportunities presented by the artisanal gold mining sector in Zimbabwe. It reflects on the measures needed to promote artisanal miners’ contribution to sustainable development, economic growth and poverty alleviation.
The ‘new’ South Africa that has emerged since the country’s first democratic elections, held the year after this acceptance speech, has fallen somewhat short of these expectations for the ‘rainbow nation’.
Between 2001 and 2008, the longest sustained commodity boom in recent history, South Africa’s mining industry contracted at roughly 1% a year.
Despite the shadow cast by the charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto at the International Criminal Court, Kenya has been quietly going about compiling its second Country Self-Assessment Report (CSAR) under the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
Platinum mining is a major engine of South Africa’s economy, producing exports and generating employment for many South Africans. It is, however, highly dependent on skilled labour, engineers and technicians, who are drawn from the limited pool of graduates that are emerging from the weak South African schooling system. Public-private partnerships have been established in an attempt to address this gap.
South Africa’s foreign policy identity is grounded in the values of good governance, democracy and human rights, as a consequence of its own transition to democratic rule in 1994. However, the past two decades have witnessed lacunae in the manner in which these values have been articulated in its economic diplomacy in Southern Africa.
Tel: +27 (0)11 339-2021 | info@saiia.org.za
© All rights reserved South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)
Powered by THINKTEAM
