NEWSLETTER APRIL 2025

With 2025 now well underway, it’s clear that this year is going to be a jam-packed one for MISTRA.

We are thrilled to officially welcome our new Director of Research, Dr Sandy Africa, to the MISTRA team. We are confident that her commitment to transformative research will significantly enhance MISTRA’s role in driving strategic dialogue both within South Africa and internationally.

We are equally excited to share that MISTRA has been selected to host the China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Programme. This programme is funded by China’s Foreign Ministry and will focus on ‘Reimagining African Modernisation: Leveraging Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Action Plan (FOCAC) Partnerships for Technology and Green Development’. The exchange programme begins in August, and we are already planning for this significant event.

Another exciting development for MISTRA is the appointment of our Executive Director, Joel Netshitenzhe, as a panellist and Head of the Secretariat for the G20 African Advisory Panel. A dedicated team from MISTRA will support him in that role, including Director of Project Management, Nhlanhla Nyide, Senior Researcher: Political Economy Machete Rakabe, and Project Management Officer, Dzunisani Mathonsi.

Last year was a big one for global politics with over 60 nations going to the polls. Following Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024, the US president has already implemented broad policy changes affecting science diplomacy, trade relations, and humanitarian aid, among other things. MISTRA hosted a webinar about what these recent developments could mean for South Africa and the African continent. We have also undertaken a project that provides a comprehensive and timely evaluation of the South African state, assessing the state’s capability, capacity, ethics and effectiveness and offering recommendations for course correction.

As the world enters a challenging political era in 2025, MISTRA has continued to host and participate in discussions that reflect on and promote South Africa and Africa’s evolving role on the world stage. Highlights of our engagements thus far include:

January: Dr Sandy Africa, our new Director of Research, and Associate Researcher, Sanele Simayile, attended a seminar on nuclear disarmament hosted by the Institute for Security Studies. MISTRA also hosted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Careers Information Session. MISTRA Fellow, Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya, participated in a roundtable talk hosted by Constitution Hill, the Netherlands’ Peace Palace, and the Cultural Heritage Agency which explored the challenges of conserving heritage sites.
February: Dr Yacoob Abba Omar took part in a dialogue on redefining engagement with power to advance constitutional rights, hosted by the Constitutionalism Fund, the Atlantic Philanthropies, Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Foundation. Our Director Project Management, Nhlanhla Nyide, and Acting Senior Researcher KESA, Nqobile Xaba, made a presentation on ‘Innovations in South Africa’ to the Northern Cape Innovation Forum (NCIF) in Upington. Also in February, MISTRA’s Political Economy Senior Researcher, Machete Rakabe, was invited by the University of Stellenbosch’s School of Public Leadership to present a lecture on ‘The Structure of the South African Economy’, drawing on the findings in MISTRA’s 2023 research-based volume on that subject.
March: Dr Laurence Caromba, MISTRA’s Humanity Researcher, attended a roundtable on the German electoral results and their implications for South African progressives, hosted by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Associate Researcher, Sanele Simayile, attended the National System of Innovation Transformation Summit.

Other MISTRA events and engagements during this period include:

Dr Africa’s participation in the Martti Ahtisaari Legacy Seminar 2025, focusing on the legacy of peace and Finnish anti-apartheid efforts.
Dr Caromba’s attendance at the inauguration of Professor Francis Petersen as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Pretoria.

Read more about these activities, and others, below:

TOP STORIES

Implications of changes in US administration for South Africa and Africa

The State of the South African State: Capability, Capacity and Ethics

International Monetary Fund 2024 Article IV Discussion

Progressive International (PI) on fact-finding visit to South Africa

MISTRA Fellow in the Spotlight - Prof Mellony Graven

MISTRA in the News

Following his electoral victory last year, Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second stint as President of the United States. In two months, his administration has swiftly implemented policy changes affecting science, diplomacy, trade relations, humanitarian aid and other matters.

MISTRA held a webinar on what these recent developments could mean for South Africa and the African continent. Speakers included:

His Excellency, Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, former South African Ambassador to the United States
Dr Sandy Africa, MISTRA Director of Research
Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, CEO and Co-Founder of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation
Mr Wandile Sihlobo, Chief Economist, Agricultural Business Chamber of SA
Prof Daniel Bradlow, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advanced Scholarship – UP

Watch the webinar recording on YouTube

MISTRA has undertaken a project that provides a comprehensive and timely evaluation of the South African state, with recommendations for course correction. This project builds on MISTRA’s previous research on the challenges, successes and failures of the South African state.

As a precursor to the release of a publication with the same title, MISTRA hosted a webinar on ’’The State of the South African State’’. A panel of speakers assessed South Africa's unique societal challenges and the country's polity in contrast to its democratic experience.

The discussion, moderated by Dr Sandy Africa, included speakers and respondents who are contributing authors to the forthcoming manuscript:

MISTRA’s Executive Director, Mr Joel Netshitenzhe
Professor at the South Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of Witwatersrand, Michael Sachs
Dr Mabutho Shangase, Senior Lecturer in Political Studies and International Relations at North West University
Political Scientist and Research Professor from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg, Professor Steven Friedman
Dr Musa Nxele, Economist and Political Economist from the University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Commerce as well as Academic Director at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance

Read MISTRA Executive Director, Joel Netshitenzhe's opening remarks

Watch the event recording

MISTRA, in partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), hosted a discussion on the latest Article IV Consultations with South Africa held between 11-25 November 2024, and the associated report which was published on January 30, 2025.

The presentation, by the IMF’s Senior Resident Representative, Mr Tidiane Kinda was hosted at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung South Africa offices, in March. It provided key fiscal, monetary and structural reform policy recommendations for South Africa considering its current political and economic challenges which were critically discussed by the hybrid audience.

Read Article IV Staff Report

Watch the discussion recording

A delegation from Progressive International (PI) – a movement launched in 2020 to unite, organise and mobilise the world’s progressive forces – visited MISTRA on Wednesday, 19 March. The group was in South Africa to engage with various stakeholders around what they can do to support SA’s presidency of the G20 in 2025. Noting that SA was facing strain in its relationship with the US, they were also planning to launch a petition signed by 100 parliamentarians from around the world, calling on US President Donald Trump to retract his order during their visit.

The following external individuals were present: David Adler – Chair of Progressive International, James Schneider, Head of Comms at Progressive International, and Richard Pithouse, an extraordinary professor at the University of the Western Cape.

MISTRA was represented by Dr Yacoob Abba Omar, Dr Sandy Africa and Na’eem Jeenah.

In every newsletter, we will be profiling MISTRA Fellows who have worked with us to produce important and impactful research over the years. In this newsletter, that fellow is Prof Mellony Graven who contributed to MISTRA’s publication titled The Pedagogy of Mathematics in South Africa: Is there a unifying logic?

Prof Graven is a full Professor and the South African Numeracy Chair at Rhodes University. Active citizenship, community engagement and equity are the key drivers of her work. Prof Graven is the founding editor of the journal ‘Learning and Teaching Mathematics’ and is Associate Editor of ‘Educational Studies in Mathematics’ and the ‘African Journal for Research in Mathematics Science and Technology Education’.

She is a past President of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. In addition to this, she has served on several international conference committees and as an editor for books, leading journals and special journal issues.

Discover the Pedagogy of Mathematics in South Africa