Student protestors have a long history of demanding financial divestment

Apr 30, 2024
In the '70s and '80s, college students demanded divestment as a way to put pressure on South Africa to end its apartheid policy.
Pro-Palestinian students and demonstrators barricade themselves at Columbia University's Hamilton Hall  on Tuesday.
Alex Kent/Getty Images

South African luxury mall navigates the return to in-person shopping

Nov 26, 2021
Some stores in the complex didn't survive pandemic closures, but other tenants expanded or relocated.
Shoppers walk by the Nelson Mandela statue at Sandton City in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2010. When the pandemic began, all nonessential stores at the luxury shopping center were forced to close.
Gianluigi Guercia via Getty Images

South Africans head to the polls amid frustrations with crime, corruption and immigration

May 8, 2019
Polls indicate the ANC is likely to retain control.
People queue to vote for South Africa's national and provincial elections at a polling station in the Tlhabologang township in Coligny on May 8, 2019. - South Africans voted on May 8 in the country's sixth democratic general election since the end of apartheid in 1994.
LUCA SOLA/AFP/Getty Images

Oil prices and inflation hit emerging economies

Oct 1, 2018
Emerging economies have had a tough time in the global economy recently. We’re talking about countries like India, Turkey, South Africa and Argentina. They’re deeply engaged in the world economy, and, in some ways, very vulnerable to its ups and downs. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 
An Indian security guard walks inside Amazon's largest Fulfillment Centre (FC) in India, on the outskirts of Hyderabad on September 7, 2017.
NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images

"South Africa's economy is in dire straits" with no short-term fix

Aug 9, 2017
In South Africa, there’s political disquiet this week along with economic discontent. The South African parliament tried and failed to oust President Jacob Zuma in a secret-ballot vote of no confidence. While the failure wasn’t a shock, the final vote was closer than it’s ever been, which has made Zuma’s critics more confident. Zuma is […]

Allegations of presidential corruption still dog South Africa’s economy

Aug 9, 2017
South Africa’s  president, Jacob Zuma, is thanking supporters after surviving a no-confidence vote in the nation’s parliament yesterday. The secret vote was more narrowly in his favor than expected, with some 40 lawmakers from his own African National Congress party supporting the motion. Zuma has been the focus of a series of corruption allegations stretching back […]

South Africa falls unexpectedly into recession

Jun 7, 2017
The gross domestic product of South Africa, one of Africa’s largest economies, contracted nearly a full percent between the last quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of this year. Some  blame President Jacob Zuma for the country’s lackluster performance. Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

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Economic, political forces harm South Africa's rating

Dec 11, 2015
Africa's second-largest economy could have its debt downgraded to junk level.

South Africans disappointed by growing inequality

May 7, 2014
A tale of two economies living in the same country.

South Africa hosts major mining conference amid labor strife

Feb 3, 2014
A mining conference kicks off in Cape Town as platinum workers go on strike.