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A court in South Africa has found that efforts by President Jacob Zuma to fast track a nuclear power deal were illegal. David Fig explains why the court's ruling has turned the nuclear procurement issue into one of the key markers of South Africa's political health. And Hartmut Winkler argues that the ruling means Zuma will have to go back to the drawing board.
International Workers’ Day will be celebrated this year against a backdrop of increasing pressure on traditional trade unions as unemployment rises and inequality widens. Edward Webster says a newly formed union federation in South Africa will only succeed if it extends its reach to the unemployed and other vulnerable groups. And Dieter von Fintel and Marlies Piek set out why the country’s planned national minimum wage could have a negative impact on workers in some sectors.
In Kenya there has been an increase in political violence in recent weeks. If it isn’t contained it could be a sign of things to come when Kenyans go to the polls in August, cautions Sekou Toure Otondi.
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Celebrations outside the Western Cape High Court after it ruled against the South African government’s proposed nuclear deal.
Nic Bothma/EPA
David Fig, University of Cape Town
The Cape High Court ruling which declared South Africa's nuclear energy plan as illegal may have put paid President Jacob Zuma's ambitions of clinching the deal while he is still in office.
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Recent protests against President Jacob Zuma outside parliament in Cape Town.
Nic Bothma/EPA
Hartmut Winkler, University of Johannesburg
A ruling by a South African court makes it unlikely that the country will see any nuclear development in the foreseeable future.
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Business + Economy
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Edward Webster, University of the Witwatersrand
South Africa's newest trade union federation, Saftu, comes at a time of declining political influence by unions, compared to during the struggle against apartheid. They are also seen as elitist.
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Dieter von Fintel, Stellenbosch University; Marlies Piek, Stellenbosch University
As South Africa prepares to introduce a national minimum wage, a new study shows that it will have a varied impact. Some parts of the economy are likely to be negatively affected.
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Politics + Society
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Sekou Toure Otondi, University of Nairobi
As party primaries have kicked off in Kenya in the run-up to the county's general election in August, the ghost of violence past has reared its ugly head causing deep divisions along tribal lines.
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Danielle Resnick, The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
The harassment of informal food vendors by national and municipal governments remains a major impediment to improving the resilience of the urban poor in African cities.
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Health + Medicine
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Willis Simon Akhwale, University of Washington
Eliminating malaria in Africa has been held back by a range of factors, including a lack of funds and drug and insecticide resistance challenges.
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Maureen Coetzee, University of the Witwatersrand; Basil Brooke, University of the Witwatersrand; Lizette Koekemoer, University of the Witwatersrand
Malaria in South Africa is close to being eliminated but to complicate matters scientists have identified a second mosquito transmitting the disease.
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Eric Osoro, Washington State University
The power to overcoming Ebola was in public awareness by performing simple yet basic infection prevention and control measures like washing hands, isolation and reporting suspected cases.
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Arts + Culture
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Hein Willemse, University of Pretoria
Afrikaans is very much a black language. The apartheid government's ploy to construct it as a "white language", with a "white history", denied the commonality of the language across race and class.
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Lesley Lokko, University of Johannesburg
Accra and Johannesburg have some way to go before making it onto anyone's top 20. Both cities have a desperate gap between rich and poor but inequality is not a uniquely African problem.
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Environment + Energy
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Andrew Cohen, University of Arizona
Climate change, deforestation, overfishing and hydrocarbon exploitation threatens one of Africa's oldest lake's, Lake Tanganyika.
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