South Africa’s Minister of Finance presented the country’s budget to Parliament, proposing a range of measures to stabilise the economy and tackle debt. While the budget hinted at steps towards a less torrid financial future, the costs to ordinary citizens may be high, argues Seán Mfundza Muller. Sean Gossel and Misheck Mutize suggest that the long run of poor management
at South Africa’s state owned enterprises may be over and Lee-Ann Steenkamp looks at the implications of the tax cuts that were announced.
Africa has the world’s richest fossil record. Julien Benoit maps out all the different evolutionary transitions they represent, and why it’s so important that students on the continent know about this powerful heritage.
Yesterday marked International Mother Language Day. Africa has more than 2100 languages, a sign of its linguistic diversity. H. Ekkehard Wolff suggests that it’s time they took centre stage.
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South Africa budget
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Seán Mfundza Muller, University of Johannesburg
Whether measures announced by Gigaba will stave off a downgrade of South Africa's local currency debt by one remaining rating remains to be seen.
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Sean Gossel, University of Cape Town; Misheck Mutize, University of Cape Town
South Africa's 2018 national budget makes it clear that the slumber and corruption that has hampered state owned enterprises must come to an end.
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Lee-Ann Steenkamp, Stellenbosch University
The South African budget speech echoed the theme of rebuilding set out by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his state of the nation address.
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Science + Technology
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Julien Benoit, University of the Witwatersrand
You might recognise Spinosaurus, from Jurassic Park 3, but did you realise it is 100% an African dinosaur?
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Education
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H. Ekkehard Wolff, University of Leipzig
Africa's current situation has a parallel in European history - the Reformation and the changes it wrought in terms of language exceptionalism.
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Politics + Society
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Mohamed M Diatta, Sciences Po – USPC
No one is immune to change in leadership that has led many African presidents to lose their coveted top job.
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From our international editions
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Jon Roozenbeek, University of Cambridge; Sander van der Linden, University of Cambridge
Researchers have developed a game to 'vaccinate' people against fake news – by showing them how to become a fake news mogul.
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Adam Bulley, The University of Queensland; Thomas Suddendorf, The University of Queensland
People tend to value potential future rewards less than similar immediate rewards when they must choose between them. Psychologists and economists call this “delay discounting”.
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Charlotte Hempel, University of Birmingham
Painstaking reconstruction of fragments of text has revealed the working draft of an ancient Jewish calendar and priestly duty schedule.
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