Development

The World Bank has recently reported that South Africa could boost its growth to 5.4 percent and double people's incomes between now and 2030.

The bank says however, that this could be possible if the country can overcome the huge obstacle of under-employment and make the most of the growing working-age population.

The bank is of  the view that getting basic education and post-school vocation training right is vital, adding that educating, empowering and employing more women is a strong route to economic growth and to a more resilient and balanced nation.

The United Nations has announced a bold communications strategy in a bid to reach seven billion people in seven days with news about the new Sustainable Developed Goals (SDG).

In collaboration with renowned British filmmaker and creator Richard Curtis, the Global Goals Campaign is partnering with wide spectrum of people and organisations across media platforms to reach as many people as possible between 25 September and 2 October 2015.

The 17 goals to address global socio economic and political ills will formally be adopted by UN Heads of State later this month.

Former President, Thabo Mbeki, says that Africa loses more than R50 billion every year as a result of the illicit flow of funds.

Mbeki points out that, "Africa faces the great challenge of large volumes of capital leaving the continent illicitly - money that our continent needs to address the challenges of development."

Southern Africa often draws praise for its nations’ progressive constitutions, relatively mature democracies and advanced state of development compared to the rest of the continent.

Hidden in the background of that rosy picture, activists say, is a new and worrying trend: a ‘downward spiral’ of human rights in the region.

Human Rights Watch is calling for Southern African Development Community leaders meeting in Botswana to do more to arrest this new trend, which has even affected South Africa, long thought of as a haven for rights on the continent.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State ended their 35th summit on 18 August 2015 with a bland communique congratulating countries that have made progress in increasing women's political representation and urging others to follow suit.

According to Colleen Lowe Morna, “It's typical of this all-boys club to equate women in politics to gender equality, even in the crucial year that the 28 targets of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development expire…”

Sonke Gender Justice and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) were in court applying to join a class action that could affect as many as 200 000 current and former mineworkers.

The organisations, which have been accepted as friends of the court, will highlight the impact silicosis has had on communities, particularly women and girls, in labour-sending areas and question the denial of the mineworkers' constitutional rights.

Activist groups have lambasted the South African National Roads Agency Limited’s (SANRAL) new advertising campaign in which the agency uses celebrities to endorse the controversial e-tolls system.

OUTA is calling the advertisements is calling the advertisements a desperate tactic to boost, what it calls, the ‘failed e-toll system’.

Meanwhile, the Justice Project South Africa has accused the Gauteng provincial government of wasting money on the campaign.

The issue of funding dominated discussions at the World Water Week in in Stockholm, Swedish, as delegates mainly from Africa, discussed water and sanitation challenges on the continent.

The African Ministers' Council on Water says it is shameful that there are still people on the continent who do not have access to drinking water.

To read the article titled, “Water infrastructure funding a challenge in Africa,” click here.