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The 2023 Water Market Intelligence Report by GreenCape identifies significant investment opportunities in South Africa's public wastewater infrastructure, specifically focusing on metropolitan municipalities. The report highlights a critical state of existing infrastructure, the potential for circular economy solutions through sludge beneficiation, and the need for energy efficiency and renewable energy interventions to combat rising costs and energy insecurity.

This policy brief by the Institute for Security Studies analyzes provincial murder trends in South Africa from 2011/12 to 2022/23. It argues that national murder statistics are misleading because trends vary significantly by province, with a small number of populous provinces driving the overall increase in the national murder rate.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) issued a statement to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) raising concerns regarding transparency, environmental compliance, and climate impact assessments for onshore gas and petroleum activities. The CER highlights a lack of public information on rights holders and questions the legality of specific projects and the use of hydraulic fracturing.

This briefing by the Public Affairs Research Institute provides a summary of the findings and recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture (the Zondo Commission). The Commission investigated systemic corruption in South Africa between January 2018 and June 2022, focusing on how private actors, specifically the Gupta enterprise, collaborated with state officials to redirect public resources for private gain.

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) issued a statement challenging the Centre for Development and Enterprise's (CDE) opposition to a basic income grant (BIG) in South Africa. The IEJ argues that poverty and economic exclusion are the primary barriers to growth, asserting that social protection and progressive taxation can stimulate the economy and create jobs, contrary to the CDE's claims that such measures are unaffordable or would hinder growth.

This report by the South African Institute of International Affairs examines the complex relationship between climate change and violent conflict in Africa. It argues that while climate change acts as a 'risk multiplier' that can exacerbate existing political, social, and economic tensions, the link to violence is indirect and highly contextual. The document emphasizes the need for conflict-sensitive climate adaptation strategies, particularly in fragile contexts, and calls for the Global North to fulfill climate finance commitments to support the Global South.

This report by the Institute for Security Studies analyzes political scenarios for South Africa leading up to 2029, focusing on the internal divisions of the African National Congress (ANC) and their impact on economic growth and national security.

This report analyzes four historical industrial transitions in Australia, the US, the UK, and South Africa to identify lessons for managing the socio-economic shifts required by global decarbonization. It finds that transition planning is often too reactive, failing to occur before a crisis, and that ignoring pre-existing inequalities or transferring environmental costs to the public undermines 'just' outcomes. The authors argue that locally driven, bottom-up approaches, comprehensive worker support (including re-skilling and social safety nets), and the use of nuanced success indicators are essential for equitable regional regeneration.

This policy brief by the Stockholm Environment Institute analyzes the collapse of gold mining in the Free State Goldfields of South Africa to derive lessons for current and future decarbonization transitions in regional economies.

This research paper by the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) evaluates the local government fiscal framework in South Africa, arguing that the structural assumptions made in the 1998 White Paper on Local Government are fundamentally unsound and have led to widespread municipal financial distress and the erosion of the social wage.

A formal letter from the South African Water Caucus (SAWC) and affiliates to Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and other officials, demanding urgent provision of water tanks, reliable water supply, and sanitation packs for communities lacking access. The document highlights a failure by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to respond to previous requests and warns of legal action if a response is not provided by August 3, 2020.

The South African Water Caucus (SAWC) issued an urgent request to Minister Lindiwe Sisulu of the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation on June 1, 2020, demanding immediate intervention for over 200 communities lacking access to water and basic sanitation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The South African Water Caucus (SAWC) submitted an urgent request to Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on April 30, 2020, demanding the provision of water tanks, reliable water supply, and sanitation packs for numerous communities across South Africa facing dire water shortages and sanitation failures during the COVID-19 lockdown.

This case study by GreenCape examines how FoodForward SA, a Public Benefit Organisation, utilizes a circular economy model to recover and redistribute surplus food in South Africa, specifically focusing on the impact within Cape Town during 2020/21.

This policy briefing by the South African Institute of International Affairs argues that the electric vehicle (EV) revolution presents Southern African states with an opportunity to transform their economic trajectories through a systemic innovation approach. It advocates for a 'just e-volution' that integrates the mining, automotive, and energy sectors to move toward a low-carbon economy, specifically suggesting a 'Green New Deal' for the SADC region to avoid becoming a dumping ground for obsolete internal combustion engine technology.

This monograph examines the use and misuse of less-lethal weapons (LLWs) within South African prisons and by the South African Police Service (SAPS) Public Order Police (POP) units during crowd management from 2013 to 2018. It analyzes the legal and regulatory frameworks of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and SAPS, highlighting systemic failures in accountability, the use of equipment as instruments of torture, and the lethal consequences of weapons marketed as 'less-lethal'.

This report analyzes the failure of Section 139 interventions in South African municipalities between 1998 and 2019. It finds that interventions are typically initiated too late, are legally misclassified to avoid mandatory financial recovery processes, and rely on an unauthorized 'administrator model' that often exacerbates municipal collapse. The authors call for a standardized, non-political implementation framework with clear triggers and strengthened oversight.

The Khoikhoi Peoples’ Rooibos Biocultural Community Protocol (BCP), published in 2019 by Natural Justice, serves as a formal framework to assert the Khoikhoi people's rights as traditional knowledge holders of Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis). It outlines the community's history of dispossession, their organizational structure for granting Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and the mechanisms for sharing benefits from the commercialization of Rooibos through a dedicated trust.

The report 'Young Leaders' by WWF South Africa documents the first decade of its Environmental Leaders internship programme (2008–2018), which aims to bridge the gap between university graduation and professional employment in the green economy. The programme focuses on developing scarce green skills through work-based learning, dedicated mentoring, and professional networking to combat high graduate unemployment in South Africa.

This 2018 report by the Centre for Environmental Rights evaluates the legal and practical regulation of wild animal welfare in South Africa. It argues that the current system is fragmented, outdated, and biased toward economic gain, leaving captive and exploited wild animals with minimal protection. The report highlights a critical jurisdictional divide between biodiversity conservation (Department of Environmental Affairs) and animal welfare (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), which results in inconsistent permitting, poor compliance monitoring, and inadequate enforcement.