Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
economic crisislatest news & developments
South Sudan was in crisis before the pipeline shutdown sent shockwaves through its economy. (KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images)

No oil, no food: Damaged pipeline piles misery on South Sudan

The pipeline was crucial for transporting South Sudan’s crude oil abroad, with petroleum exports usually accounting for about 90% of the country’s GDP

Sierre Leone: New money, old problems

The country’s shiny new banknotes are only a cosmetic solution to Sierra Leone’s dire economic crisis, say critics

Ending the lockdown is a policy both Trump and Biden voters could agree on. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)

The US election problem is over, but the coronavirus lingers

Ending the lockdown is a policy both Trump and Biden voters could agree on

Embroidery by a woman who lived through traumas of apartheid. (Puleng Segalo)

How embroidery broke the silence around women’s apartheid trauma

By making embroideries, women move beyond and challenge categories and labels of “being vulnerable” or being perceived as “marginalised”

People wait in line to receive food at a food bank on April 28, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Food banks around the nation have witnessed a surge in clients as millions of Americans have either lost jobs or seen a decline in income due to the continued closure of businesses and economic life because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Global job losses linger after lockdowns

Developing countries have been hit harder by the Covid-19 downturn than in past economic crises

workers on the side of the road in Hout Bay hope they will be picked up for a job. (David Harrison/M&G)

Job seekers hit the pavement in hope and desperation

About 3-million South Africans have lost their jobs during the lockdown. Lester Kiewit talks to people waiting for work on the side of the road in Cape Town

Glass ceiling: The ban on the sale of liquor is not only affecting tavern owners (above). Glass manufacturers sell about 85% of their products to the alcohol beverages industry. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

The glass is half empty

The ban on alcohol sales does not only affect liquor companies — it ripples lethally through other related businesses such as the bottle and packaging industry, which, if it…

Since shops shut on March 26, the South African economy has taken a huge knock.(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Macroeconomic policy options beyond Covid-19 depression

Measures need to lay the foundations of a new economy and society post the pandemic

Last resort: The World Bank, seen in discussion above, in 2013. (Stephen Jaffe/IMF/Getty Images)

No money to spare as GDP set to fall

With little money to respond to Covid-19, the government is looking at other sources of funding

Despite mounting allegations of human rights abuse, Museveni has a close ally in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A police officer beats a female orange vendor on a street in Kampala, Uganda, on March 26, 2020, after  Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni directed the public to stay home for 32 days starting March 22, 2020 to curb the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo by Badru Katumba / AFP)

The time to act is now: A letter to African leaders about the Covid-19 crisis

The dearth of political will and the extractive practices of external actors can no longer be used as an excuse for inaction. We no longer have a choice; we need a radical change…

File photo by Delwyn Verasamy/M&G

An unprecedented crisis: The economic ramifications of Covid-19

The ways in which we respond to the coronavirus pandemic will determine the world that greets us when we emerge from lockdown

A man in protective gear disinfects a bus. The disinfection consists of washing the exterior of a bus, dry sweeping and wet cleaning the inside and aerosol spraying. (Artur Harutyunyan Tass via Getty Images)

Covid-19’s silver lining: A taste of a post-development world

The coronavirus epidemic has thrown issues such as gross income and ownership inequality into the spotlight, as we try to find ways to navigate through this crisis

A matric has become a minimum requirement for a multitude of jobs.

Close the education gap by helping employees get their matric

In a changing work environment and poor economic climate, the minimum requirement is a national senior certificate or similar

Last week a student protest at the University of Zululand led to a police van being petrol bombed.

Students, your violence destroyed a man’s livelihood

While life goes on for the students at UniZulu, may they spare a thought for Ndumiso Ntsele whose only sin was to try to make an honest living in tough economic times

The green economy can pave a way to a thriving South African society by unlocking economic value, fighting climate change and improving human wellbeing. It is a win-win-win.

The green economy – a win-win strategy for South Africa

On a provincial level, programmes such as Gauteng’s The Innovation Hub are helping to create green economic growth

(John McCann/M&G)

Democracy will flounder sans Stats SA

As the government bails out state-owned entities, it is leaving a hole in the budget of the agency tasked with telling us what South Africa looks like — one that is crucial to…

A patient is transferred by an ambulance to the Infectious Disease Centre of Princess Margaret Hospital on January 22, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

Will the coronavirus cause a major growth slowdown in China?

The panic generated by the new coronavirus, 2019-nCov, which originated in Wuhan, one of China’s largest cities and a major domestic transport hub, reminds many of the fear and…

Hard choices: President Cyril Ramaphosa visits Pampierstad (above) during the ANC’s 108th anniversary celebrations. In Kimberley, about 100km away, he spoke of the poverty, which mirrors South Africa’s ‘inability to transform the economy in the past 25 years’. (Masi Losi)

‘Be bold, take risks’ to fix economy

Everyone has different solutions, but they all agree that time is running out — and Eskom is the priority

The expulsion came as Beijing slammed Washington’s decision to tighten rules on Chinese state media organisations in the United States.

Bright signs emerge amid global turmoil

While populist governments around the world have continued to run up public debts to pay for handouts to their supporters, others are pushing back

President Cyril Ramaphosa. (Yeshiel Panchia/AFP)

Whatever happened to Ramaphoria?

“Overall it seems not only is Ramaphoria dead [it was never alive] but the long arc of reform potential is being lost in the discourse."