Economy and Politics

The Most Revd Dr. Thabo C Makgoba leaves today to participate in the Annual Meeting 2012 of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 25-29 January.

This 2012 Annual Meeting will convene under the theme, The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models, ‘whereby leaders return to their core purpose of defining what the future should look like, aligning stakeholders around that vision and inspiring their institutions to realize that vision.’

After the uprisings in the Arab world, South Africa's veteran Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said Wednesday it was now time for women to have their revolution and banish men to the margins.

Speaking at a gathering of the world's political and financial elite in Davos, the vast majority of them men, Tutu said women had long been locked out of policy-making -- and the world had paid the price.

A South African prelate is urging Catholics to oppose the Protection of State Information Bill, which is under consideration in the nation’s legislature.

“The Bill comprehensively protects the State Security Agency from public scrutiny because it allows the Agency itself to decide what it wishes to be kept secret,” said Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, the nation’s legislative capital. “Any illegal activity by the Agency could therefore easily be hidden from scrutiny and from the legal process.”

Millions of protesters in 82 countries and across nearly a thousand cities have taken to the streets to demonstrate against the bailing out of the rich, while those at the bottom end of society are expected to pay for a global economic crisis prompted by speculation and greed.

The 'Unite for Global Change' actions look set to continue throughout the week, with a new wave of demonstrations planned across Europe and the USA.

Written by Fredrick Nzwili

Faith leaders in Zambia are calling for unity and peace as the southern African nation awaits the outcome of the presidential election held on 20 September. 



The election pitted Michael Sata, the main opposition and the leader of the Patriotic Front, against Rupiah Banda, the incumbent president and the leader of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy. 



Written by Kudzai Taruona

The proposal by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to introduce a wealth tax for the super-rich is not at all a bad idea as it is an attempt to make them share their wealth with the poor, thus reduce the widening gap between the rich and poor in the South African society.

This was said Prof Geoff Harris, economics lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal at a breakfast briefing organised by the Diakonia Council of Churches, on 25 August, as part of the activities of the biannual Social Justice Season.

Written by Trevor Grundy

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is planning to visit Zimbabwe in October as part of a wider trip to Africa and hopes to meet with President Robert Mugabe to discuss a brutal dispute over church properties. 



Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on Thursday had harsh words for South Africa’s white population, as well as for Cabinet ministers who he said should lose their expensive cars as a gesture to show the poor that they cared.

“Our white fellow citizens have to accept the obvious: You all benefitted from apartheid. But that does not mean that all are responsible for apartheid.

By Fredrick Nzwili

As Global South church leaders heighten demands on governments to lower food and fuel prices, a U.K. charity has called for urgent reforms of the global food system. 



Compelling evidence shows that economic inequality within societies damages the social fabric and quality of life for citizens.

"Inequality corrodes societies. It is the root cause of so many societal ills - crime, violence, teenage pregnancies, drug abuse, infant mortality. Generally, life is better in more equal societies than in unequal ones. People in more equal societies live longer, a smaller proportion of children die in infancy and self-rated health is better," Prof Wilkinson said.