Thought Leadership & Opinion

ALI SA Fellow, Adi Enthoven South Africa’s story over the past decade has often been told as one of inevitable decline, fraying institutions and fading hope. Yet voices from within business and civic leadership are beginning to ask a different question: what if the trend line is starting to bend in the right direction again and what would that mean for our shared future as a country and as a c...

ALI WA Fellow, Bright Simons The global conversation about Africa and minerals tends to follow a familiar script: vast untapped wealth, geopolitical competition and the promise of a green-energy windfall. But is this framing serving Africa’s interests, or someone else’s? Bright Simons, founder of mPedigree and an ALI West Africa Fellow, has spent over a decade questioning the assum...

ALI SA Fellow, Dr Brenda Kubheka-Chauke In a recent News24 opinion piece, Dr Brenda Kubheka-Chauke (Class XIII: Akani) explores how climate change in South Africa is not only an environmental crisis but a profound challenge to human rights. Drawing on her experience in public health, governance and ethics, she reflects on how flooding, heat and displacement aggravate existing inequalities, with...

ALI SA Fellow, Dr Nobs Mwanda Gender-based violence and femicide remain among South Africa’s most urgent human rights crises, cutting across age, geography and income and leaving deep physical, emotional and economic scars on individuals and communities. Against this backdrop, long-term, community-rooted work that centres prevention, healing and accountability is essential to shifting the con...

by Mohamed Ali Diini, Founder: Iftin Global The ALI Africa Impact Forum in Cape Town was my first real engagement with the Africa Leadership Iinitiative network after ten years of working almost entirely inside Somalia. I didn’t understand how isolating that decade had been until I walked into a room full of peers from across the continent and realized – I had never really had this k...

Gareth Morgan, ALI SA Fellow Gareth Morgan (Class XIII Akani), the Executive Director of Future Planning and Resilience – City of Cape Town, has co-authored a powerful new guide with Peter Willis: Becoming Good at Crises – A Field Guide for Leaders. This book arrives at a time when leaders everywhere are being tested by the pace and complexity of crisis and it offers a clear, practical p...

Globalisation seminar of international AGLN Fellows having some fun at Holi Festival in Jodhpur, India In a world marked by shifting alliances and deepening divides, the Globalisation Seminar in Jodhpur, India, offered our Fellows a rare space to connect, challenge and reflect. Simon Freemantle and Cobus van Wyngaard (Class XIV: Pamoja), both committed to values-based leadership, share their expe...

In the lead-up to SALDRU’s landmark conference: South Africa at 30 Years of Democracy, held in April 2025, a powerful partnership between the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) and the Africa Leadership Initiative South Africa (ALI-SA) catalysed a series of bold, high-level policy dialogues. Designed to challenge assumptions and forge new pathways, these engagements b...

At a time when global headlines threaten to obscure the lived realities of South Africans, our nation’s leaders are called to respond with clarity and conviction. The following statement, crafted by white South African Christian leaders, is a testament to the power of ethical leadership and collective responsibility. With unwavering commitment to justice, these leaders challenge misrepresentatio...