Blog

Sadly, the Stellenbosch University Senate today voted against a motion condemning genocide in Gaza. At least we debated the motion submitted by Progressive Professors, and it was defeated by a relatively small margin. Nevertheless, it was a vote against a motion condemning Zionist apartheid and genocide. One very prominent Professor with a human rights record suggested the debate get postponed because it was the second day of passover and therefore Jews were not present. I sent this email to this person: “While I appreciate your concern about Jews not being present I thought it would be interesting for you to note that myself and quite a number of other Jews were present. I am Jewish, and fully supported the motion [and, I should have added, the ICJ decision]. The reason I supported the motion was that Senate has taken a position condemning apartheid before because that is a moral position, not about taking a ‘political side’ in a conflict. The same applies to Gaza for reasons you so eloquently articulated. But one issue I need to raise: I do not think this issue is about Jews being present or not just because Israel talks in the name of Jews. Just like Apartheid was the cause of oppression of black AND white people in different ways, the Zionist state is the cause of oppression of Palestinians AND Jews. Jews must be against Zionism and the Israeli state just as vehemently as whites should have been opposed to Apartheid.” The motion, in that sense, has nothing to do with Jews; it was about voicing opposition to genocide perpetrated by Zionists who act in the name of Jews. Saying we can only discuss this if Jewish colleagues are present is like saying we can only discuss Apartheid if whites are present. Just like the Apartheid state cannot be seen as speaking for all white people, so too one cannot say the Israeli state speaks for all Jews. Young Jews all over the world are protesting against genocide in Gaza. In doing so, they discover what empathy means, and therefore what it means to be fully human. They also correctly protest against the atrocities of 7 October. But this is not a war as some of my colleagues argued, it is genocide. Nor is it “just another conflict going on worldwide”, as others argued. It is genocide rooted in what we South Africans all know so well – namely, what we called apartheid and all over the world this term is now used to describe the Israel/Palestine imbroglio. This is why this matter is of special concern to all South Africans. Every time the IDF bombs a neighbourhood or tortures someone’s parents in front of their children or a child is detained, so dozens more supporters of Hamas are created. There is no way the IDF can defeat an idea by replicating on a daily basis the number of people who have nothing to lose and therefore are willing to die for Hamas and the liberation of Palestine. In this sense, the IDF is the most effective recruiting agency for Hamas. Why does this make any strategic sense to anyone?

CST Annual Report 2021-2022

For the call for papers, click on link below:

call for papers FINAL v3 Dates updated

Marching in Glasgow

CST staff members, Nina Callaghan and Robyn Foley, worked with SAICA to develop the video based on our state capture research

Well, the moment has come to return home. At the airport in Washington DC. Arriving in Johannesburg tomorrow night after a stop over in Newark. Weekend in Pretoria and home to Stellies and the mountains – that’s what I missed most – that amazing view of the Helderberg from my couch. It’s been three months at Georgetown University in D.C., based at the newly established Environmental Justice Programme (EJP) headed up by my good friend Prof Gäel Giraud. He and I crafted the original ideas and with an amazingl young interdisciplinary team of modellers and social scientists, we have crafted the vision and 5 year strategy over the past three months. Gäel and I also spent many many hours in Georgetown’s coffee shops and restaurants sharing and building ideas for a new book that should in my view simply be called ‘HOW?’ – Lenin’s famous pamphlet was ‘What is to be done?’ … that is no longer the question: now it’s ‘How should it be done?’ What amazes us both is how little is said about the HOW of change. We want to fuse together thermodynamics, heterodox economics, relational governance, institutional work, transition thinking and the commons. We want to answer the question: Why does so little change when we know so much about why we have no future if nothing fundamental changes? We want to thread together long histories of material resource flows, economic development and the commons. If neoliberalism was an economic paradigm that was coupled to a particular theory of goverrnance, what theory of governance is appropriate for a heterodox economics of the global dynamics of the just transition? Gäel brings his superb non-equilibrium integrated economy-climate modeling skills and I bring the institutional knowledge about governance, process and space. It’s a rare privilege to find an intellectual soul mate – we have the same values and world view, but very different knowledge sets and writing traditions. On economic matters there is so much I can sense, but it would take a decade to master the relevant literature! Gäel has it all at his fingertips, including a technical grasp of the maths involved. And vice versa, he tells me. And so when we talk, there are almost no limits to the landscapes we traverse. Long lists of readings to be done emerge, as well as notes, diagrams and doodles that capture an ever-evolving and expanding intellectual landscape. Truly exciting. Can’t wait until we start getting into the real writing!! But for now, it’s back to African soil and my mountains.Well, the moment has come to return home. At the airport in Washington DC. Arriving in Johannesburg tomorrow night after a stop over in Newark. Weekend in Pretoria and home to Stellies and the mountains – that’s what I missed most – that amazing view of the Helderberg from my couch. It’s been three months at Georgetown University in D.C., based at the newly established Environmental Justice Programme (EJP) headed up by my good friend Prof Gäel Giraud. He and I crafted the original ideas and with an amazingl young interdisciplinary team of modellers and social scientists, we have crafted the vision and 5 year strategy over the past three months. Gäel and I also spent many many hours in Georgetown’s coffee shops and restaurants sharing and building ideas for a new book that should in my view simply be called ‘HOW?’ – Lenin’s famous pamphlet was ‘What is to be done?’ … that is no longer the question: now it’s ‘How should it be done?’ What amazes us both is how little is said about the HOW of change. We want to fuse together thermodynamics, heterodox economics, relational governance, institutional work, transition thinking and the commons. We want to answer the question: Why does so little change when we know so much about why we have no future if nothing fundamental changes? We want to thread together long histories of material resource flows, economic development and the commons. If neoliberalism was an economic paradigm that was coupled to a particular theory of goverrnance, what theory of governance is appropriate for a heterodox economics of the global dynamics of the just transition? Gäel brings his superb non-equilibrium integrated economy-climate modeling skills and I bring the institutional knowledge about governance, process and space. It’s a rare privilege to find an intellectual soul mate – we have the same values and world view, but very different knowledge sets and writing traditions. On economic matters there is so much I can sense, but it would take a decade to master the relevant literature! Gäel has it all at his fingertips, including a technical grasp of the maths involved. And vice versa, he tells me. And so when we talk, there are almost no limits to the landscapes we traverse. Long lists of readings to be done emerge, as well as notes, diagrams and doodles that capture an ever-evolving and expanding intellectual landscape. Truly exciting. Can’t wait until we start getting into the real writing!! But for now, it’s back to African soil and my mountains.

On the same day that the International Energy Agency publishes a report on how to achieve Net Zero by not building anymore fossil fuel plants, our ‘coal fundamentalist’ Minister Gwede Mantashe gives a speech in Parliament where he says: “We are going to be a major players in gas and oil”. Since 1994 Government has had these extremely expensive hobby horses that are arrogantly asserted coupled to denials – think arms deal, Fifa, pebble bed modular reactor, and then all denials about the criminal capture of Eskom, DENEL, Transnet, Prasa, etc, and this insane quixotic rush to become an oil and gas leader in a world moving off oil and gas. What alternative universe is the Minister in? Who benefits from this? What are the vested interests?

Students compiled this Prospectus for the Diploma – gives a real sense of what it is all about!!

Student_Prospectus_ Diploma SD_final

South African Presidential Economic Advisory Council report entitled Briefing Notes on Key Policy Questions for SA’s Economic Recovery. This long-awaited report questions many key approved economic and energy policies.

PEAC Report

It is a sad day when the best that can be achieved by the SA Cabinet is an economic recovery plan that assumes gas and nuclear are realistic options.

Final_CABINET LEKGOTLA PRESENTATION amended copy07102020