At the July 2003 Cabinet Lekgotla, government took a decision to undertake a country/ macro-social analysis to focus its attention on how these indicators were behaving over time. This would help to inform our assessment of the efficacy or appropriateness of government’s social programmes. The discussion document on macro-social trends in South Africa (Macro-Social Report [MSR]) is based on extensive research and discussions at the Forum of South African Directors-General clusters and Cabinet.

This volume is a commemorative issue that consolidates research undertaken by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) on various aspects of women’s place and role in South Africa’s political economy and polity at large. The volume is based on chapters from MISTRA’s publications as well as seminal contributions, on MISTRA platforms, to critical global debates.

The role of traditional authority in a democratic dispensation is highly contested. While the constitution acknowledges this system, the formulations are vague, and they are a source of much frustration among traditional leaders, who clamour for more power and authority.

Edited by Laurence Caromba, Bhaso Ndzendze and Scarlett Cornelissen

Ever since its inception, a core goal of the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) has been to study the long-term, big-picture issues that shape the trajectory of human civilisations. The decision to undertake this study of global power transition was thus a natural fit for MISTRA, since this is a classic example of an issue that benefits from a long-frame view.

The political, economic and social life of any modern country and society is profoundly shaped, and its development guided, by the state and its numerous institutions – irrespective of the nature of that state. Three decades into its democratic experience, the South African state has made remarkable strides in its efforts to change South African society for the better. 

This conference was convened to consider how the continent should position itself in a sharply shifting world. It was prompted by the following two provocations.

MISTRA Coalitions Barometer I of 2023 covered South Africa’s local elections of 2021, monitored for the period 2021-2023. MISTRA Coalitions Barometer II monitors local coalitions for the period 2023-2025, and South Africa’s national and provincial coalitions for the period 2024-2025.

MISTRA Coalitions Barometer II monitors local coalitions for the period 2023-2025, and South Africa’s national and provincial coalitions for the period 2024-2025.

Mobility has been part of human ways for millennia. With the emergence of nation-states, regulating it became a critical part of public policy, generating contestation within and among nations. Migration in South Africa: Conflicts and Identities explores this contestation, migration patterns and policy debates in the country today.

This book traces how African migration experiences are similar to those in other regions of the world but also informed by the unique history of a continent whose nation-states were carved artificially by colonial powers. The South African experience of migration is explored in this context.

The voters have had their say in South Africa’s 7th democratic national election. MISTRA’s report analyses their choices and the nature of the coalition governments that resulted.

The MISTRA Coalitions Barometer 2021–2023 takes stock of coalition politics in South Africa at a local level for the period between the local government elections in 2021 and a cut-off point, for the current edition, of mid-2023.

MISTRA’s new book, Why Innovations Live or Die: South Africa’s innovation system interrogates the notion of a National System of Innovation (NSI) and the issues surrounding it. Contributing authors argue that the fundamental question is about the relevance of innovations to the country’s citizens, and whether the system promotes economic growth, social inclusion and initiative across all sectors of the population.

MISTRA’s edited research-based volume, The Evolving Structure of South Africa’s Economy: Faultlines and Futures, examines the extent to which the South African economy is contributing towards the achievement of the country’s developmental goals. The publication draws attention to how historical, global, and domestic economic dynamics have affected the country’s structural transformation. It deals with policies that have shaped the evolution of the structure of the economy from a classic Minerals Energy Complex (MEC) to a Minerals Energy Finance Complex (MEFC).

MISTRA’s edited research volume, Protest in South Africa: Rejection, reassertion, reclamation explores the underpinnings of protest in contemporary South Africa and both its short-term causes and structural drivers. Contributors to the volume provide an overview of the complexity of protest action, the diversity of protest spaces and actors, and the responses to protest from both citizens and state.

Deliberations on the just transition in South Africa have intensified and will continue to do so for the next few years and decades. Climate change, widening socio-economic inequality, the precarious future of work and emergent approaches to financing arrangements have brought new urgency to the issues. It therefore remains critical to interrogate how South Africa can ensure a just transition to a low carbon economy.

Youth in South Africa: Agency, (in)visibility and national development sets out the youth policy environment, the historic background to the youth’s role in national development and the structural challenges facing many young people. It also explores the resilience and agency that young people demonstrate as social, economic and political participants, as well as some of the processes of identity formation that young people engage in.

Marriages of Inconvenience: The politics of coalitions in South Africa is a research-based volume that collates and interprets lessons that South Africa should take to heart in managing interparty coalitions. It draws from domestic experiences as well as from case studies on the rest of the African continent and generic instances further afield.

Land in South Africa: Contested Meanings and Nation Formation,  examines how land and agrarian reform impacts nation building, citizenship, and identity formation. The publication draws attention to the limitations of reducing land to a commodity, and how this approach perpetuates social conflict and inequality in land reform policy implementation.

Mintirho ya Vulavula: Arts, National Identities and Democracy examines the role of arts and culture in development, and specifically its value in consolidating our nascent democracy and in facilitating the transformation of South African society.

Leap 4.0: African Perspectives on the Fourth Industrial Revolution seeks to identify the challenges and opportunities the 4IR presents to South Africa and the rest of the African continent, especially to workers and marginalised sectors of society.

Beyond Tenderpreneurship: Rethinking Black Business and Economic Empowerment examines the socio-economic impact of BEE legislation, and the diverse experiences of black entrepreneurs in post-apartheid South Africa.

Africa and the World: Navigating Shifting Geopolitics, addresses key questions about what the shifts in the global political economy mean for Africa. Geographically, Africa is situated at the very intersection of many geopolitical dynamics. Yet prevalent scholarship and debate largely imagine Africa as a passive passenger in a changing global order.

Epidemics and the Health of African Nations, explores Africa’s vulnerability to disease, and demonstrates that this disease occurs commonly because of political and economic influences. These factors also determine the way epidemics are managed and controlled.

Traditional Leaders in a Democracy: Resources, Respect and Resistance explores how chieftaincy is practised, experienced and contested in contemporary South Africa. It explores how those living under the authority of chiefs, in a modern democracy, negotiate or resist these politics in their respective areas.

The Future of Mining in South Africa: Sunset or Sunrise is the first of its kind in South Africa. The research aims to catalyse change by gathering together fragmented views into unifying conversations about the future of mining in South Africa and other countries across the mineral-dependent globe.

Whiteness Afrikaans Afrikaners: Addressing Post-Apartheid Legacies, Privileges and Burdens consists of various thought-provoking contributions made at a roundtable held in 2015 at Constitution Hill as a continuation of MISTRA’s research on nation formation and social cohesion.

Beyond Imagination examines the evolution of nanotechnology and biotechnology, their convergence and possible technological trajectories, as well as the ethical and other challenges posed by these technologies.

Seeking the Ethical Foundations of the South African Nation is the culmination of a project started by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) five years ago, that sought to reflect on the past 23 years of South Africa’s young democracy with a view to understanding the ethical issues and challenges facing various sectors of our society today, and the extent to which ethics and values underpin the Constitution and National Development Plan (NDP) for the realisation of our freedoms.

The Pedagogy of Mathematics in South Africa offers an overview of the research into the reasons behind South Africa’s poor performance in mathematics and offers an overview of that research, reasserting some of the findings of previous studies, such as the fact that today’s mathematics teaching and performance reflects the impact of its colonial and apartheid past.

Reimagining Basic Education in South Africa: Lessons from the Eastern Cape examines the roles of power and politics, governance and management, as well as accountability and professionalism in transforming the educational systems inherited from apartheid colonialism in South Africa.

Changing Economic Balances and Integration in Africa Rising examines what happens to geopolitics when economic balances change between neighbours and between regions?

The Emergence of Systems of Innovation in South(ern) Africa traces the history of innovations from precolonial times and examines precolonial settlements in southern Africa such as Mapungubwe in Limpopo Province, Bokoni in Mpumalanga Province and Msuluzi in KwaZulu-Natal Province from the perspective of their indigenous technological efforts to harness nature for communal benefit.

The Great Recession and its Implications for Human Values: Lessons for Africa examines the reasons behind and the implications of the ongoing global economic recession particularly for the South African economy and economies of the rest of the African continent.

The Role of Intellectuals in the State-Society Nexus, explores various factors including the poverty of depth and relevance in the humanities and social sciences that have had the effect of undermining the contribution that intellectuals are able to make to the complex processes of social transformation.

20 Years of South African Democracy: So Where to Now? is the outcome of a conference marking the beginning of South Africa’s third decade of democracy hosted in November 2014 by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) and the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI) at the University of South Africa.

Resurgent Resource Nationalism is a qualitative study, undertaken by MISTRA for SASOL Ltd, that looks at the resurgence of resource nationalism over the past ten years. The study discusses the concept of resource nationalism and its manifestation in public policy and identifies the concerns, drivers and instruments through which resource nationalism is pursued by various mining jurisdictions across regions.

Earth, Wind and Fire: Unpacking the Political, Economic and Security Implications of the Discourse on the Green Economy, examines issues ranging from global and domestic climate change and sustainable energy issues to the mineral-energy complex issues that have given rise to local and sector-specific problems.

The Rise and Decline and Rise of China: Searching for an Organising Philosophy, investigates the multifaceted factors that accompanied and influenced the evolution of Chinese society over the centuries.

Nation Formation and Social Cohesion: An Enquiry into the Hopes and Aspirations of South Africans, examines different interpretations and meanings that diverse social actors attach to the calls and prospects for nation formation and social cohesion.

Essays on the Evolution of the Post-Apartheid State, critically examines the challenges, successes, and failures of the post-1994 South African state against the humane values enshrined in its Constitution.

Patronage Politics Divides Us research explores the relationship between patronage, poverty, and inequality with a particular focus on its impact on the conduct of local politics.

South Africa and the Global Hydrogen Economy, highlights the global significance of platinum group metals (PGM) and explores the strategic opportunities that arise out of South Africa’s endowment of these strategic resources.

The Concept and Application of Transdisciplinarity in Intellectual Discourse and Research, puts forward alternatives to directly respond to the multilayered challenges of diffuse disciplines, interlinked socioeconomic problems, impacts of globalization, technological advancements, environmental concerns, food security, and more.

Mapungubwe Reconsidered: Exploring beyond the rise and decline of the Mapungubwe state, contributes to the body of knowledge about Mapungubwe, straddling such issues as the relationships between humans and the environment, management of mineral endowments and the form and impact of southern Africa’s global intercourse in this historical period.

The Art, Philosophy And Science Of Football In South Africa explores why South African football evinces so much promise, and yet in relation to many of our peers in Africa and further afield, at both club and national level, we flatter to deceive?

From Agriculture to Agricology Towards a Glocal Circular Economy explores Professor Dani Wadada Naudere’s strong belief that we can reclaim the future by producing knowledge that is relevant for society, and for the continued participation in civic causes designed to assist the wretched of the earth.