Editor's note

This week the UN released a scary special report about global warming that shows how crossing the ever-nearer threshold of 1.5℃ warming will affect the planet. It also sets out how difficult it will be to avoid overshooting this target.

Southern Africa has its own particular set of problems when it comes to managing the impact of a hotter planet. Firstly, climate change “hotspots” – hot, dry and water-stressed countries like Botswana and Namibia – are likely to be warmer as well as drier than the global average. This makes action all the more urgent, argues Mark New, while Robert Scholes sets out why staying below 1.5°C will require urgent, deep and radical changes in almost every aspect of our lives.

Nontobeko Mtshali

Education Editor

Top story

The Okavango Delta in Botswana. Shutterstock

What latest assessment on global warming means for southern Africa

Mark New, University of Cape Town

For hot, dry and water-stressed countries like Botswana and Namibia, high temperatures and droughts will be more severe than the global average.

Dairy and livestock farming will not be viable over much of the subcontinent at the current rate of warming. Shutterstock

What southern Africa needs to do to manage rising temperatures

Robert Scholes, University of the Witwatersrand

Staying below 1.5°C will require urgent, deep and radical changes in almost every aspect of our lives.

Business + Economy

Accra’s informal settlements are easing the city’s urban housing crisis

Seth Asare Okyere, Osaka University; Jerry Chati Tasantab; Matthew Abunyewah, University of Newcastle

Research in Ghana shows that improving slum housing could be one of the alternatives to the capital's housing crisis.

South Africa’s economy is in a mess. New finance minister must hit the road running

Jannie Rossouw, University of the Witwatersrand

South Africa's new finance minister comes with considerable skills and political finesse needed to steer the country out of its economic quagmire.

South Africa’s stimulus package shows power is finely balanced in the ANC

Steven Friedman, University of Johannesburg

Ramaphosa's stimulus package is more interesting for what it says about the politics of economic decision making than for its likely impact on the economy.

Africa can get more from its minerals by building industries to service mines

Vuyo Mjimba, Human Sciences Research Council

African economies could benefit more from backward linkages to the mining industry than from beneficiation.

Politics + Society

Cameroon presidential poll underscores the need for term limits

Cheryl Hendricks, Human Sciences Research Council; Gabriel Ngah Kiven, University of Johannesburg

President Paul Biya's credibility and legitimacy are increasingly being tarnished, amid growing support for opposition candidates.

Moral courage and decency irrelevant as South Africa’s finance minister resigns

David Everatt, University of the Witwatersrand

Nhlanhla Nene was highly regarded for refusing to fund former President Zuma's ludicrous rent-seeking projects.

Health + Medicine

Why drugs alone won’t stop the spread of parasitic worms in Africa

Justin Komguep Nono, University of Cape Town; Hlumani Ndlovu, University of Cape Town

Deworming needs to be accompanied by health awareness campaigns in order to reduce diseases from parasitic worms.

Why integrating HIV with non-HIV services in Uganda won’t work

Henry Zakumumpa, Makerere University

In Uganda stand-alone clinics for HIV treatment persist because of stigma and overcrowding.

 
 
 
 

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