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Richard Calland

Associate Professor in Public Law, University of Cape Town

Richard Calland has for 20 years been working in the fields of democratic governance and sustainable development in South Africa and beyond. Based at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where he is Associate Professor in Public Law, Calland heads its Democratic Governance & Rights Unit. Calland is also a Fellow of the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), working as a member of faculty on a range of customised leadership and strategy programmes for amongst others the World Bank, PWC, the African Development Bank, Nedbank, Namdeb, Network Rail and Tata, and is now leading its Africa Initiative, which is focused on investment choices in sustainable infrastructure. He is also the co-director of the African Climate Finance Hub and the governance advisor to the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST), an international initiative directed towards information disclosure in large public infrastructure projects. Amongst other corporate clients, he is a long-time retained consultant to Massmart, Africa’s largest retailer that was recently acquired by Walmart, advising on issues of politics, sustainability and governance, as well as providing regular political risk briefings to the investor clients of UBS, Ernst & Young and Citi, and has recently established a new advisory organisation – The Paternoster Group: African Political Insight. His most recent book, The Zuma Years, was published in 2013. Before moving to South Africa in 1994, Calland practiced law for seven years at the London Bar.

Why South Africa’s Constitution is under attack

Mar 18, 2017 07:14 am UTC| Insights & Views Law

South Africas Constitution, greatly lauded around the world and the product of Nelson Mandelas democratic transition of the mid-1990s, is under attack. Its being blamed in some quarters for the slow pace of socio-economic...

Emerging Market Crisis Series

Prexit: as South Africa looks over the abyss who will blink?

Oct 13, 2016 08:14 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics Economy

Like the lemming that is about to throw itself off the proverbial cliff, South Africa appears unable to stop itself from preventing a self-inflicted act of such monumental folly that it could easily send Africas second...

Economy

What should you do if you can’t pay your rent or mortgage?

The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

Reducing energy demand and improving efficiency will help prevent the next gas crisis

Gas prices have relaxed, Europe has come out of the winter with record gas storage levels and a surfeit of liquefied natural gas is set to reach the shores of Europe over the coming years. Many commentators are hopeful...

Minimum wage for South African farm workers: study shows 2013 hike helped reduce poverty even though compliance was poor

Minimum wage policies are typically aimed at reducing poverty. Yet there is little direct evidence of this effect, especially in developing countries. And none for South Africa. In a recent paper, we consider the...

Gas is good until 2050 and beyond, under Albanese gas strategy

The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel through to 2050 and beyond. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuels uses would change over...

South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed

The South African governments Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan was launched in November 2023. It is a roadmap guiding the country away from reliance on coal-fired power towards renewable energy alternatives by...

Politics

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

Former President Donald Trump reportedly proposed a $1 billion deal to oil executives, offering to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in return for campaign funding, according to The Washington Post. This move underscores...

US Supreme Court upended decades of precedent in 2022 by allowing voters to vote with gerrymandered maps instead of fixing the congressional districts first

For the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use congressional districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens. A 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in February...

Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections

Ahead of the European parliament elections in June, Germany has lowered the age limit on participation to 16. This makes it the largest of just a handful of states in the EU to allow people under the age of 18 to vote....

South Africa will be president of the G20 in 2025: two much-needed reforms it should drive

South Africa will play an important international role in 2025 as president of the G20. The G20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the African Union and the European Union. Between them they represent 85% of global...

What early 2024 polls are revealing about voters of color and the GOP

By the end of winter 2024, the return of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP presidential ticket has revealed a surprising trend in the former presidents base of support: his increasing popularity among Black and Latino...

Science

Is dark matter’s main rival theory dead? There’s bad news from the Cassini spacecraft and other recent tests

One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics today is that the forces in galaxies do not seem to add up. Galaxies rotate much faster than predicted by applying Newtons law of gravity to their visible matter, despite those...

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without...

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

Technology

Tesla Cybertruck Powers Houston Gas Station, Elon Musk Reacts to Saudi Prince’s Photo

A TikTok video showed a Tesla Cybertruck powering a Houston gas station after a tornado, while Elon Musk responded to a photo of a Saudi prince with a Cybertruck. Cybertrucks Real-World Test Connecting to a Tesla...

Shanghai's Data Policy Shift Could Propel Tesla's Local Data Center Efforts

Shanghais new data-export policy could accelerate Teslas plans to build a local data center, enhancing its artificial intelligence (AI) development for autonomous driving. Chinas Regulatory Update As China attempts...

CPI Report Spurs Optimism, BlackRock CIO Forecasts Fixed Income Growth

The release of the U.S. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report provided a wave of relief to the financial markets. This signaled a possible reduction in inflationary pressures. Rick Rieder, Chief Investment Officer of...

Over 50 Million USDT Blacklisted by Tether Amid Regulatory Scrutiny, Details Inside

Tether has blacklisted five wallets holding 54.1 million USDT, amidst increasing regulatory scrutiny and past enforcement actions. Tether Blacklists Five Wallets Holding 54.1 Million USDT Amid Ongoing Regulatory...

Altcoins Expected to Yield 2x-5x Gains by May End: Fetch.AI, Floki, AAVE, ENA

The latest climb in Bitcoins price beyond $65,000 on Wednesday sparked a new relief rally in the cryptocurrency market. Top altcoins are also profiting from the upward momentum, recovering from recent downturn tendencies....