Looking forward towards 2025
The last article I am going to post for 2024, on the 29th of December, will be the final one in what has now been effectively a four-part series on South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel and the likely role of the United States.
In 2024 I published about 40 substantive articles. Here’s a word cloud from those:
That’s probably a realistic number for 2025 as well, although there are already far more than 40 topics that I would like to cover. Here is a small sample of likely titles:
Is South Africa’s president a national security risk?
An investment perspective on South Africa in 2025*
Alternative profile: Michiel Le Roux and the Millenium Trust
What just happened in Syria?
The decline of ‘unipolarity’ and the hegemony of the United States?
Joining dots in South African academia and civil society from past sex scandals at the University of the Witwatersrand
An alternative profile of Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh and SMWX
Khumbudzo Ntshaveni and the steady undermining of South Africa’s intelligence capacity
How the public were misled on the balance of power in South Africa’s new coalition
The long hand of apartheid military and intelligence recruits in present day South Africa
On the origins of Covid-19
Follow-up: Songezo Zibi, Rivonia Circle and Rise Mzansi
The local and foreign billionaires behind ‘alternative media’ in South Africa
The economic policy dilemma of the ‘GNU’
Is South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority about to be comprehensively captured?
Mariana Mazzucato: the big con?
I might also start adding shorter posts with links to news items that I think are important, along with very brief comments.
As you might imagine, the time taken to write these pieces and do the necessary background research is quite significant. If you are able to, please do consider registering a paid subscription; I am grateful to all those who already have.
Because my entire motivation for this work is public understanding of what is actually going on and the broad public interest (in South Africa and abroad) my intention is to keep as much of the content freely available as possible. The only likely exception will be a series of articles (like the starred one above) that I will be writing from the perspective of potential investors in South African companies listed on the JSE.
Although there is not much at the national or international level to be optimistic about right now, at the individual level there are often still many things to be grateful for. I hope you are able to enjoy some of those as the year comes to a close.