Thought Leadership & Opinion

What does freedom mean for a young person who is politically free but economically stuck? In an article for the Sowetan, ALI SA Fellow Dr Steven Zwane (Class XVI: Umsimbithi) argues that entrepreneurship education is one of the most important missing pieces in South Africa’s response to youth unemployment. More than a pathway to business ownership, he presents it as a way to build agency, helpi...

For ALI SA Fellow Kayum Ahmed (Class VII: Dinatla), Rhodes Must Fall was never simply a student protest. It was a movement that challenged deeply held assumptions about liberation, education and power, forcing institutions and individuals alike to confront questions that could no longer be ignored. Those questions form the foundation of Theorizing Fallism: The Movement to Decolonize the Universit...

When institutions intervene to protect vulnerable people, does their responsibility end when the immediate crisis is resolved? In a thought-provoking Daily Maverick opinion piece, ALI SA Fellow Dr Brenda Kubheka-Chauke (Class XIII: Akani) examines a difficult question at the intersection of healthcare, ethics and children’s rights. Using a recent public debate about life-saving medical trea...

As South Africa marks 50 years since the 1976 Soweto Uprising, ALI SA Fellow Dr Steven Zwane (Class XVI: Umsimbithi) writes that June 16 cannot remain only a day of wreaths, speeches and remembrance. In his Sowetan column, Steven reflects on the courage of the students who confronted apartheid’s education system and connects that history to the pressures facing young South Africans today, inclu...

Public accountability is not only about rules. It is about whether institutions have the courage to stand behind the systems they create. In a recent Daily Maverick opinion piece, ALI SA Fellow Prof Busani Ngcaweni, Class X: XSeed, examines National Treasury’s criticism of an audit regime shaped by its own regulations. His argument raises a deeper leadership question: what happens when the rule...

ALI SA Fellow Thomas Brennan (Class XVI: Umsimbithi), CEO and Co-founder of Franc, has shared Franc’s inaugural Wealth Index Report, a data-backed look at financial wellbeing in South Africa. Drawing on almost 4,000 responses, the report sets South Africa’s national Wealth Score at 45 out of 100 and shows that behaviour is a stronger predictor of financial wellbeing than income, age or educat...

When a nation’s lies harden into “glue”, leadership faces a particular kind of test. In this provocative reflection, ALI SA Fellow Prof Busani Ngcaweni (Class X: Xseed) traces how deception in South Africa has shifted from isolated untruths to a structural feature of our politics and public life. He argues that power “lies for a living”, that myths of progress, permanence and exception...

ALI SA moderator and Class XII: Isilimela Fellow, Sharmi Surianarain recently invited us to reflect on moderation as an act of love in a world overflowing with opinions and crowded conversations. Drawing on her lifelong relationship with books and language, Sharmi explores what it means to “hold space” in difficult dialogues—particularly those around race and justice. She reminds us that re...

Two ALI SA Fellows, Justice Malala (ClassII: Kilimnjaro) and Mondli Makhanya (Class III: Seriti), have just released a timely podcast on SONA 2026 and the 2026 Budget Speech. In a context of slow growth, fiscal strain and rising public frustration, they unpack what SONA revealed about South Africa’s priorities – from economic reform and infrastructure to crime, water and state capacity – an...

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...