School of Business Sciences honours top students in annual prizegiving
The School of Business Sciences held its prestigious annual Prize-Giving Ceremony to honour top-performing students - celebrating academic excellence.
Professor paddling for climate change
Accountancy Professor Kurt Sartorius plans to paddle 1100 kilometres down a tributary of the Amazon River to highlight climate change.
SOA students impress in SAICA ITC
Students from the Wits School of Accountancy (SOA) have achieved excellent results in the 2022 SAICA ITC.
CLM shines at awards ceremony
The Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management won THREE awards from the Vice-chancellor’s office, recognizing the exceptional work carried out by staff in CLM.
VC’s Team Teaching Award for 2021
The CLM T&L Centre Team are the recipients of the VC’s Team Teaching Award for 2021
WBS Head to lead new initiative
Wits Business School Head Dr Sibusiso Sibisito to lead new Artificial Intelligence, Technology and Finance Initiative
Explainer: lessons from the collapse of a small South African bank
The South African Reserve Bank placed VBS, a small mutual bank, under curatorship in March this year against a backdrop of a serious liquidity crisis.
Lessons from Zimbabwe's failed land reforms
Giving communal land to individual households, rather than mostly corrupt traditional overseers, will unlock real value, energy and entrepreneurship.
The new finance minister must hit the road running
The latest reshuffling of South Africa’s finance minister may have negative origins but it brings with it some positive energy.
Moral courage and decency irrelevant as SA’s finance minister resigns
If politicians see only personal advantage from other's 'weakness’ – defined here as honesty, seeking forgiveness, repentance – then the future is bleak.
The finance minister merry-go-round
We have a new Finance Minister. Again.Tito Mboweni takes over amidst a recession and with a tricky political tide ebbing and flowing precariously.
SA's electoral system is weak on accountability
We have heard it said many times before: the SA electoral system does not provide a sufficient link between the citizen and the elected representative.
A country for all its citizens
Opinion: Advocate George Bizos SC is proud to call Nelson Mandela his life-long friend.
It's in your hands
Blaming Nelson Mandela for our current faults conveniently shifts introspection from the mistakes that the ANC and leaders subsequently made in power.
The 46-year-long Wits LLB that never was
Nelson Mandela is among Wits University’s most famous alumni, but he is not a graduate of the University.
10 ideas for reviving the economy and reducing SA’s dire inequality
Few dispute that the South African economy is in serious trouble but how do we fix it?
Dismantling the state (capture) that Zuma built
It will be a lengthy and costly process to find out just how deep the state capture rot is and what the detritus is that former President Zuma has left behind.
To zero-rate, or not to zero-rate: why the VAT debate is more complex than it appears
The 1% point increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) rate this year has raised important questions about how the tax system can and should address inequality.
Who governs?
A week of telling snapshots of combat between capture and recovery. The Zondo Commission hearings go to the heart of the answer to this question.
How structural flaws contribute to the crisis in South Africa’s municipalities
The dire state of municipal governance in South Africa has been in the news for much of this year.
What changing the ownership of South Africa’s central bank will, and won’t, do
On the EFF's motion regarding the Reserve Bank and the South African Reserve Bank Amendment Bill.
Inquiry on how parts of the private health care sector in South Africa can be fixed
A Health Market Inquiry into South Africa’s private health care sector has established that the market is dominated by a few players.
Government of national unity the way out for Zimbabwe
South Africa needs to intervene to persuade Zanu-PF and the MDC Alliance leadership to secure peace through a coalition government.
ANC expediency is messing up South Africa’s land reform process
If land reform is hijacked by the ANC for the purposes of winning the 2019 poll, South Africa could be on a slippery slope.
The richest 10% own 95% – products of an economic and social system
How is it possible that we can have a society with so much wealth and so much poverty?
The ANC of 2019
Zebra stripes, leopard spots and the troubled king of the political jungle.
A quarter of a century of democracy: Defects and disappointments
South Africa’s fast approaching 2019 benchmark of 25 years of democracy is one that will be celebrated with circumspection.
Africa Rising - the future of investment
Unique Wits-researched UN report maps out key areas for African cities to attract Foreign Direct Investment.
You don’t know what you don’t know
It is life-changing, say discipline experts, about a programme for lecturers.
A wish for the youth of our country
Advertising guru, Peter Vundla, wished his co-graduands "what they deserve" when addressing them after being awarded an honorary doctorate degree.
No freedom without dignity and equality
Justice Zak Yacoob reissues the call to uphold the Constitution and for universities to play a bigger role on this mission.
ANC’s election manifesto moment of truth
As it crafts its 2019 elections manifesto the African National Congress faces a prolonged “moment” of truth.
Embrace the power of social entrepreneurs
Following the corporate scandals around KPMG and Steinhoff International, the legitimacy of business has fallen to levels not seen in recent history.
The General behind the scenes in the Rivonia trial
Five things you didn’t know about Rivonia trial lawyer Joel Joffe, lawyer extraordinaire.
Understanding the economic cost of corruption in Kenya
Kenya is perceived as one of the world’s most corrupt countries, ranked 143 out of 180 on Transparency International’s 2017 corruption perception index.
Africans are not ‘voting fodder’
The prerequisite for successful African decolonisation is to put value on every individual African life.
The not-so-merry Zuma go-round
“What has changed?” could be the question as Jacob Zuma makes his way towards his next court appearance in the Durban High Court this week.
What makes waves in water crises?
Column: Water problems are in large measure problems of people and organisation, not problems of engineering.
Whose water is it anyway?
South Africa’s hydrocolonisation of Lesotho.
Using the court to secure water rights
Access to sufficient water is a human right but failures of government often compel people to access this through law.
The Mooi River truck protests – rewired citizen revolt
The Mooi River protests could serve as a reminder of South Africa’s vulnerability to arterial occupation protests generally.
Connecting the dots between the hike in South Africa’s VAT and inflation
South Africa is bracing itself for the first increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) in many years.
VAT zero-ratings finely balanced
The most likely alternative to VAT the Treasury would have taken would have been further cuts in expenditure - a move that would have cost the poor a lot more.
NMW Bill heads to Parliament amid concerns
The National Minimum Wage Research Initiative at Wits raises concerns over serious shortcomings of the Bills.
Explainer: what happens when a bank is put into curatorship
The South African Reserve Bank has placed a small bank – VBS Mutual Bank – under curatorship.
Ramaphosa makes noises about backing small business. It’s about time
The structure of the South African economy is often overlooked as a factor of small business and entrepreneurship.
First executive programme in Digital Business
Wits Business School (WBS) is excited to have launched its first executive education programme in Digital Business, the first of its kind in South Africa.
How corporate social responsibility projects can be derailed
Many of these projects fail due to cultural insensitivity and misplaced communication strategies.
Six challenges that impede entrepreneurs with disabilities
South Africa needs to do more to support people living with disabilities who want to run their own businesses.
Shifting ground and quicksand towards Election 2019
Will the new political dynamics of early 2018 still hold by the time South Africa gets to Election 2019, somewhere between April and June next year?
Very little fact and clear thinking in tax talk
Analysis: Unpacking the tax proposals in the 2018/19 National Budget though publicly available data.
Lifting the lid on a VAT increase
2018 Budget Speech: A unilateral increase on the least progressive tax component – VAT – will harm the poor and lower-income earners.
Five priorities SA’s new administration should focus on
What the new administration should do as a matter of priority to recover a state damaged by corruption and nepotism.
As we ponder the State of the Nation, what do we need to address?
Addressing unacceptably high level of inequality should be the focus of President Ramaphosa’s economic policies.
The Ramaphosa moment
How many Messiahs can one country take? What kind of president will Cyril Ramaphosa be?
How democracies can be held hostage by party machinations
The Conversation Africa asked academics what lessons can be learnt, and how the ANC can redeem itself in the post-Zuma era.
Hope is well and good but effective policy reforms will save the day
Ramaphosa’s rise has sparked optimism, but work must be done to tackle inequality and grow the economy.
South Africa needs good water management, not new water laws
Experience around the world is that, more often than not, water laws aren’t the problem.
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Blurred lines
Cape Town water crisis: crossing state and party lines isn’t the answer and no political party should lead a response to an urban governance crisis.
Land reform and the law
Expropriation assumptions reflect misunderstanding of Constitution.
Nationalising the Reserve Bank
Government ownership does not automatically imply government control.
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Why shaking up South Africa’s power utility matters for the economy
South Africa’s power utility Eskom has seen a remarkable leadership shake up in the past few days.
Tackling global crime networks
Interview with Lord Peter Hain about his efforts to bring British banks to justice for their alleged involvement in state capture.
Saint or sinner?
South Africans are trying to decode Ramaphosa, and getting it wrong.
Guardians of the democracy
Public-private sector relationships should serve society broadly and when it starts serving the interest of a individuals it undermines our hard-won democracy.
Steinhoff scandal points to major gaps in stopping unethical corporate behaviour
A corporate scandal unfolding around one of the largest businesses coming out of South Africa, Steinhoff, has become a major cause for concern.
South Africa needs approach to inequality
It is widely accepted that SA is one of the most unequal societies in the world.
Is it Cameroon’s turn to be suspended from US trade pact with Africa?
Cameroon has been a member of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) initiative since it was launched in 2000.
The ANC leadership race will go down to the wire: here’s why
The suspense is tangible as the African National Congress (ANC) – South Africa’s former liberation movement that’s turned into a tired governing party
Pravin Gordhan joins Wits School of Governance
The former Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan has been appointed as a Visiting Professor in the Wits School of Governance as from 1 December 2017.
The right to work and debarment in the financial market
It is troubling in a constitutional democracy that laws exist allowing people to be deprived of their livelihoods without any inquiry at all.
Philanthropy can reduce inequality
The act of giving by business, and wealthy and skilled individuals can make important contributions to solving our pressing problems.
South Africa shows why collaboration is key to tackling global crime networks
Professor Peter Hain talks to The Conversation Africa’s Charles Leonard about alleged illicit financial transactions centred around South Africa’s President.
Global developmental institution needs to be accountable on Lonmin
The time to account has come for the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group.
New Centre at Wits to tackle inequality
Wits launches first Centre for inequality in the southern hemisphere.
What’s at stake in SA’s finance minister’s first budget
There’s a great deal hanging on Gigaba's 2017 medium term budget policy statement on 25 October 2017.
Why the dream of a prosperous, united nation continues to elude SA
The goal of one united South African nation living prosperously under a constitutional democracy remains elusive.