Great Wave
In December 2017, the ANC elected a new President, Cyril Ramaphosa. This event is being widely celebrated as a ‘new dawn',that is, as an opportunity to deal with the corruption and economic mismanagement and opportunity to restore the constitutional project and return government to action on the basis of sound policies.
After Capture
Disturbing revelations of ‘state capture’ have brought to the surface the need to re-prioritise state reform and address a number of issues that this entails. The #AfterCapture campaign was PARI's flagship project in 2018.
Global South
In March 2018, in collaboration with the New School in New York, PARI hosted a conference in Buenos Aires titled 'Rethinkling Democracy in Africa and Latin America'.
Lephalale
The PARI report 'We Are Building a City: The Struggle for Self-Sufficiency in Lephalale Local Municipality' was launched on 18 April 2018.
Life Esidimeni
PARI in May held a Public Service Reform Roundtable. This second-in-the-series discussion was to investigate one of the deadly side-effects of state capture in South Africa – the Life Esidimeni tragedy in which 144 people died after being transferred to ‘spaza-shop NGOs’.
Taxation and state-society relations
The PARI report, 'Taxation and State-Society Relations in Sub-Saharan Africa' was launched on 7 June 2018.
SOE Freefall
The capacity of the state has been severely eroded. South Africa has had to grapple with a weaker economy, a continued revenue short-fall and dysfunctional State-Owned Entities that are bleeding the fiscus dry. — Civil Society Working Group on State Capture
Brown MPA Programme
August 19th – 27th 2018, PARI hosted a group of Masters in Public Affairs students from Brown University. The group were taken through an exciting itinerary exploring Johannesburg’s historical and political spaces to better understand South African public policy.