The Conversation – Page 2 – MIL Africa Engine

August 21, 2026

Zambia’s messy but decisive election: government shows strength; democracy shows weakness

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Michael Wahman, Professor, Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin

Across southern Africa, sitting presidents have faced a wave of turnovers and electoral setbacks in the past few years.

Malawi and Botswana saw opposition victories. In Namibia and South Africa, incumbents were re-elected, but with significantly smaller majorities.

In Zambia, the Patriotic Front suffered a humiliating defeat in 2021 as voters reacted to poor economic performance. This resulted in a new government led by Hakainde Hichilema and his United Party for National Development.

Hichilema’s government has ruled in a time of extreme global economic anxieties. Conflict, supply chain interruptions and aid withdrawal have piled pressure on governments, not least in Africa. In southern Africa, erratic weather conditions have brought droughts, food insecurity and energy shortages, adding to economic woes. In this environment, how did Zambia’s incumbent party secure such a decisive re-election in 2026?

In an impressive showing, Hichilema secured an increased 61% of the vote compared to 38% for the main opposition challenger, Brian Mundubile. However, accusations of fraud and manipulation have tainted the election.

We are politics scholars who focus on democracy and elections in the region. We’ve been following developments in Zambia as the vote turned increasingly controversial.

In our view, however, it would be a mistake to understand the party’s victory as purely a reflection of manipulation. Other important factors contributed, including voter approval of the government’s handling of the economic crisis as well as education, healthcare and food security.

Was it fraud?

While many of us political scholars had anticipated a decisive victory for the United Party for National Development, academics Nic Cheeseman and Nicole Beardsworth published a remarkable article days after the election analysing voting patterns. The numbers were not adding up.

Election results announced by the Electoral Commission of Zambia showed improbably high voter turnout in many government-party strongholds. Even more suspicious were large and illogical differences in votes cast in parliamentary and presidential elections in some constituencies.

This was compounded by a highly unusual country-wide suspension of vote counting imposed by the electoral commission the day after the election, amid reports of violence. The European Union Election Observation Mission noted that the “overall conduct of tabulation (vote counting) deteriorated significantly” after the lifting of the suspension.

If fraud was indeed perpetrated inside ruling party strongholds, the critical question is whether it is decisive. Focusing only on 16 particularly suspicious constituencies, analysis found a difference of 170,000 votes between the number of presidential and parliamentary votes, but the nationwide vote difference was more than 1.1 million between the president and the opposition challenger.

Much more clarity came after the respected domestic election observer network, the Christian Churches Monitoring Group (CCMG), published their regular Parallel Voting Tabulation survey. Indeed, the parallel results did not match the official results. It appears United Party for National Development votes were inflated.

Importantly, however, the monitoring group still had the party as the runaway winner in the presidential election. According to their survey, Hichilema received 56% of the vote (give or take 1.7 percentage points), compared to Mundubile’s 42%. In other words, manipulation does not seem to be enough to explain Hichilema’s decisive victory.

His party’s re-election was a reflection of both opposition weakness and government strength.

Opposition weakness

Throughout most of the presidential term, voters expected a re-match between Hichilema and former president Edgar Lungu. However, Lungu unexpectedly died just over a year before the election and the opposition was left without a leader.

Internal succession struggles within the Patriotic Front tore the party into factions. And the Registrar of Societies, which regulates political parties, frustrated attempts to register new political challengers. Polling voters after Lungu’s death, we did not find any opposition party with more than 12% declared support.

After dramatic nominations, Mundubile emerged as the main opposition candidate. He ran under the banner of a previously obscure opposition party, National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity. Mundubile’s strategy was to revitalise the former Patriotic Front coalition. In campaigns, he proudly declared that as president he would “rule like Lungu”.

This strategy may have been sound for uniting the opposition. However, to win national elections, emulating a coalition that voters soundly removed from office five years ago was not enough.

The final performance was nonetheless impressive for a party that was virtually nonexistent three months earlier. It won more votes than the government in most areas where the Patriotic Front dominated in 2021. It also made inroads among urban voters, a notoriously volatile voter group in Zambia.

However, the 2026 election reaffirms an old truth about Zambian politics: elections are won by mobilising the base and winning regional strongholds with big margins.

Given the apparently inflated votes in many of these strongholds, we need to treat official vote counts with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, some patterns are so clear that we can still draw some conclusions.

Mundubile’s party simply lacked the ground organisation needed to win. And the government was winning respectable shares of the vote in areas that were supposedly opposition strongholds.

Government strength

While we will probably never know the real voter turnout, independent estimates put it at around 54% of registered voters. In the last election, it was 71%.

In 2021, voters were highly motivated to vote and oust a highly unpopular government. This wasn’t the case in 2026.

Key to the government’s popularity is its strong handling of the economy. The government successfully restructured debt, kept inflation under control, and delivered steady growth. Voters credited government with stepping up drought initiatives to ease the suffering of rural Zambians.

Our poll showed strong approval of the government’s performance on education, healthcare and food security. Hichilema’s approval rating was measured at an unusually high 79%. His party’s campaign posters touted slogans such as “continuity”, a globally rare campaign message in days of anti-incumbent sentiment.

A weakening of democracy

A decisive victory leaves Hichilema with a strong mandate and a weakened opposition.

His party is now looking to gain a comfortable majority in parliament. This dominance was certainly helped by controversial constitutional changes instituted just ahead of the election. A new bill created new constituencies, expanded presidentially nominated seats, and introduced new seats for women, youth, and persons with disabilities. This aided the party.

It has also asserted stronger party discipline. The debate over the bill ignited infighting, but the election seemed to settle the contest. Hichilema took a hard line against MPs who voted against it. He now leads an increasingly unified and loyal party.

However, the election is not settled and leaves many questions unanswered. The opposition intends challenging the results in the Constitutional Court. Crucially, they will have to show that manipulation changed the outcome. While it will be hard to argue it did, it looks like it may have affected the proportional distribution of parliamentary seats.

Generally, the election has weakened Zambia’s democratic credentials in an environment where western pressure to protect democratic institutions is weaker than it has been in decades.

Not only did the election itself raise questions, but also a mysterious security operation the day after. This targeted opposition officials, including Mundubile. It left one person dead and several more detained. It raises serious human rights concerns.

This will be Hichilema’s last term, and the battle over who succeeds him is likely to begin soon. How his party uses its new dominance, whether to manage succession or to change the rules to consolidate its position further, will shape Zambian politics in the years to come.

– Zambia’s messy but decisive election: government shows strength; democracy shows weakness
– https://theconversation.com/zambias-messy-but-decisive-election-government-shows-strength-democracy-shows-weakness-289953

August 20, 2026

Changing the history curriculum is not enough if English always dominates the classroom – South African study

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Nhlanhla Mpofu, Researcher in TESOL & Literacy, University of Notre Dame Australia

In many South African classrooms, learners continue to experience the subject of history through the language, concepts and perspectives inherited from colonial traditions. Changes have been made to what children are taught. But the curriculum changes might not be enough to change what children learn in history classrooms.

The reason for this is that English continues to dominate as the language of learning and teaching in most secondary schools. This is despite the fact that South Africa officially recognises 12 languages.

As education researchers with an interest in the languages used in the classroom, we wanted to examine the relationship between language choice and the teaching of history.

We did this through a study of Grade 8 history classrooms in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Focusing on a local historical event, learners were encouraged to examine whose perspectives become visible or invisible through different language choices.

We found that this allowed them to think critically about how history is recorded, challenge the standard versions of the event, and create more of a connection between their own lives and the bigger historical picture.

Our research suggests that if learners are to engage critically with history, they must also be empowered to question the language through which the subject is taught.

The Kimberley diamond rush

Our research focused on the Kimberley diamond rush. The development of Kimberley can be traced back to the discovery of diamonds around 1870 on a farm in what was then known as Griqualand West, now part of South Africa’s Northern Cape province. News of the discovery spread quickly and attracted thousands of prospectors, fortune seekers and labourers from across the region and beyond. As people flocked to the area in search of wealth and employment, a small settlement rapidly grew into the bustling town of Kimberley. The diamond rush played a significant role in shaping South Africa’s economic and social history, establishing Kimberley as one of the country’s most important mining centres.

This is a topic taught in South African schools in Grade 8 (for learners in the age group 14-16 years).

Traditionally, learners encounter this history through narratives centred on economic development, industrialisation and influential figures such as Cecil John Rhodes. All these texts are written in English. While these accounts are important, they leave little room for the experiences, languages and perspectives of African communities affected by mining, land dispossession and labour exploitation.

Our study followed an approach known as decolonial language awareness. The approach positions indigenous languages as legitimate sources of knowledge.

The study took place in two public secondary schools in the Northern Cape. Participants were two Grade 8 History teachers and learners in linguistically diverse classrooms. The schools served multilingual communities where isiXhosa, Setswana, Afrikaans and English were commonly used, although English remained the primary language of learning and teaching.

The intervention began with what looked like a simple question posed by teachers:

Why is the story of Kimberley diamonds always taught in English?

The discussion that followed revealed a level of critical awareness often underestimated in young learners. Students quickly linked English to political power, pointing out that many historical records were written by colonial administrators, mine owners and government officials. They recognised that the voices preserved in textbooks were often those of people who held power rather than those who experienced the consequences of that power.

What happened next was perhaps the most significant aspect of the project.

Teachers and learners in this study worked together to develop a historical glossary in English and isiXhosa. This was more than a simple translation exercise. Instead, learners explored whether familiar historical terms accurately represented the experiences of African communities. They drew on family histories, community memories, oral narratives, cultural knowledge, and contemporary experiences of language, identity and inequality to make sense of events that had occurred generations earlier.

Take the term “compound system”. In many history textbooks, it is presented as a labour arrangement that housed African mine workers in employer-provided accommodation to facilitate the management and control of the workforce. Yet when learners explored isiXhosa alternatives such as inkampu yabakhonziswa (“a camp of those compelled to labour”), they began to question the neutrality of the textbook term. Their discussions shifted attention from labour organisation to the lived realities of confinement, coercion and restricted freedom.

In this way, language became a tool for uncovering different interpretations of the same historical phenomenon and for foregrounding perspectives often absent from dominant historical accounts.

A similar process unfolded around the concept of “dispossession”. When discussions shifted towards isiXhosa expressions such as ukuncothulwa emhlabeni (“being uprooted from the land”), the historical event acquired a more human and emotional dimension. Learners connected the concept not only to the loss of land but also to disrupted ties of belonging, community, identity and ancestry. What had previously appeared as an abstract textbook term was reinterpreted as a lived experience with profound social and cultural consequences.

These discussions transformed the dynamics of the classroom. Learners who were often quiet during conventional history lessons became active participants. Some brought stories, expressions and insights from parents and grandparents into classroom debates. Others challenged textbook terminology and proposed alternative ways of understanding historical events. Home language was no longer treated as something left at the classroom door. It became a valuable academic resource.

Perhaps most importantly, learners began to recognise that history was not a single story.

When presented with a British mine manager’s report describing workers as “industrious but sullen”, learners asked how those same workers might have described the manager. Whose perspective was represented? What experiences were omitted? How would the story change if told from another viewpoint? These questions demonstrate a level of historical thinking that goes far beyond memorising facts and dates.

Beyond curriculum change

Critics may argue that such approaches make history too political. Yet history has always been political. Decisions about which events are recorded, whose voices are preserved and which languages are regarded as authoritative are never neutral. By making these processes visible, learners are being equipped to think critically about knowledge itself.

The broader implications extend beyond history classrooms. Three decades after the end of apartheid, South Africa continues to grapple with questions of transformation, equity and inclusion. If educational success remains tied to English, many learners will continue to experience a disconnect between their lived realities and what schools recognise as knowledge.

Decolonising education is not about replacing one version of history with another. It is about giving learners the agency to ask difficult questions, evaluate competing perspectives and participate in the ongoing construction of historical knowledge.

– Changing the history curriculum is not enough if English always dominates the classroom – South African study
– https://theconversation.com/changing-the-history-curriculum-is-not-enough-if-english-always-dominates-the-classroom-south-african-study-289515

August 20, 2026

Along Nigeria’s ‘spiritual highway’, prayer camps create a new urban future

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Marloes Janson, Professor of West African Anthropology, SOAS, University of London

The highway between Lagos and Ibadan was built in 1978 at the height of Nigeria’s oil boom. Lagos is the country’s largest city, with an estimated population of over 20 million, and Ibadan the third-largest and home to a globally renowned university.

But the boom years are over and rising traffic and decades of neglect have turned the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway into one of Nigeria’s deadliest motorways, earning it the nickname “highway of death”.

Yet even as the 127km stretch of road has faltered as a transport corridor linking north and south, it has flourished as a stage for public religion. Today, lined with sprawling prayer camps, it’s also known as the “spiritual highway”. Religious billboards have replaced road signs and religious camps have been established along the route.

For years my research as an anthropologist has explored how multi-faith settings challenge conventional ideas of religion. I have studied the more than 30 religious organisations that have established vast prayer camps along the course of the highway since the 1980s. Attracting tens of thousands of worshippers seeking health and wealth, they have transformed the expressway into an urban spiritual centre.

The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway connecting Nigeria’s first and third largest cities. Akintunde Akinleye

These sites consist of vast, factory-like prayer halls. They offer a wide range of facilities, including shopping malls, restaurants, banks, hotels, health clinics, schools, and even universities. As a result, many have evolved into “prayer cities” that combine urban and religious worlds within a single space.

While drawing vast crowds during religious programmes, a growing number of camps provide permanent residence for members seeking to escape what they perceive as the moral corruption of urban life. By supplying services often lacking in Lagos and Ibadan, like reliable electricity, a clean and secure environment, and spiritual redemption, these camps have developed into “religiocities”.

My research shows that the prayer camps lining the expressway challenge enduring portrayals of Nigeria – particularly its cities – as chaotic, dysfunctional, and driven by religious tensions.

One of the ways they do this is by blurring the lines between religious traditions. Muslim prayer camps borrow from Pentecostal models, Christians attend Muslim programmes. And many Lagosians move between these religious spaces in search of healing, prosperity, or spiritual fulfilment. These religious crossovers point to a faith landscape shaped less by fixed identities than by interaction and exchange.

The camps also reveal how urban development and religious life are deeply intertwined. Through investments in land, infrastructure, education and healthcare, religious organisations have emerged as key forces in the making of new urban spaces.

Faith at the crossroads

The best-known prayer camp along the expressway, found 46km from Lagos, is Redemption City. It’s the headquarters of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Founded in 1983, this 3,500-hectare camp was the first to be established along the highway and continues to be the largest of its kind.

It has a resident population of about 250,000 and an estimated half a million workers. To serve their needs, Redemption City has developed its own electricity, water and waste-management infrastructure. It has been transformed into a city-like environment in both scale and functionality.

Added to this, a monthly Holy Ghost Service draws hundreds of thousands of worshippers to an all-night programme of prayer, preaching, healing and deliverance.

Redeemed Christian Church of God’s Redemption City. Akintunde Akinleye

Redemption City’s success spurred other religious organisations to establish camps along the expressway. One of them is the Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fathi Society of Nigeria, which opened its camp in 2000. An official told me:

We didn’t want to be left behind by the Pentecostal churches, so we followed their example and bought land along the expressway … We are investing heavily in developing our camp.

Once a month, Muslims travel from Lagos and beyond for asalatu, a mass prayer gathering held on Sunday mornings to coincide with Pentecostal services. Mirroring Pentecostal formats, the event combines praise worship, prayer requests, testimonies and thanksgiving offerings.

Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fathi Society of Nigeria’s Islamic Centre. Akintunde Akinleye

The close proximity of Christian and Muslim camps has encouraged mutual borrowing of spatial forms and religious practices. During my fieldwork in Redemption City, I met a young professional who moved between Pentecostal and Muslim prayer gatherings to “multiply” his chances of success.

Such practices, often described by Lagosians as “religious shopping”, suggest that the city’s religious landscape is shaped less by rigid boundaries than by reciprocal exchange.

Christianity and Islam are not the only forces reshaping the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Near Ibadan stands Guru Maharaj Ji’s 40-hectare ashram – a Hindu term for the place where the pupils of a guru or spiritual leader are taught. Lacking the monumental architecture of the neighbouring Christian and Muslim camps, and distinguished by images of Hindu deities, the camp appears as an unlikely presence within this landscape.

The site centres on a temple where thousands of followers gather weekly to hear teachings that blend African religious traditions, Hinduism and Rastafarianism. Presenting these as complementary paths to spiritual liberation, Guru Maharaj Ji rejects Christianity and Islam as foreign, imperial faiths. Instead, he draws on traditions he sees as closer to Africa’s indigenous spiritual heritage.

Satguru Maharaj Ji’s ashram along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Akintunde Akinleye

The ashram appeals to urban Nigerians looking for a different spiritual path than the Pentecostal megachurches and Muslim mass movements that shape life in Lagos and Ibadan. Followers often describe Christianity and Islam as restrictive. As one told me:

Guru Maharaj Ji teaches us practical exercises for a better life. His knowledge is divine; it’s not book knowledge.

Rethinking the city

The prayer camps illustrate the strong links between urban growth and religious practice. Religion does not simply occupy the spaces along the highway, it’s helped develop them. Through investments in land, infrastructure and municipal services, religious organisations have emerged as powerful agents of making orderly and secure urban spaces.

The religious groups have taken over the role of the state. The withering of the state’s ability to play a meaningful role in urban development stretches back to the 1980s when structural adjustment and neoliberal reforms led to the privatisation of state functions. Religious organisations emerged as influential public actors.

A second factor behind the developments was soaring land prices and limited space in Lagos that pushed fast-growing churches to the city’s outskirts. The forested land along the expressway offered room to grow. It was gradually folded into the expanding urban corridor between Lagos and Ibadan.

Prayer camps challenge stereotypes of African cities as deficient and Nigerian cities as sites of religious conflict. My research shows that they provide viable urban alternatives to Lagos, fostering coexistence and everyday forms of conviviality across religious boundaries.

In the process, they shift attention away from dominant portrayals of African cities as spaces of deprivation and “slums”. Instead, they highlight Lagos and surrounds as a site of creativity, innovation and emerging urban futures.

– Along Nigeria’s ‘spiritual highway’, prayer camps create a new urban future
– https://theconversation.com/along-nigerias-spiritual-highway-prayer-camps-create-a-new-urban-future-289769

August 20, 2026

Film festivals take African cultural heritage around the world – and help keep it alive

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Sheila Petty, Professor Emerita of Film Studies, University of Regina

Palgrave Macmillan

African film festivals were once quite rare, but in the past decades they’ve been growing in the continent and mushrooming around the world. A recent open access book explores these events through case studies.

The book’s editor, African cinema scholar Sheila Petty, has also written chapters in it about the role film festivals play in creating a living and lasting conversation about African culture. We asked her five questions.

What generally happens at a film festival?

Since the world’s first international film festival in Venice, Italy, in 1932, film festivals have created spaces for the discovery of new stories and cultures. The main idea is to bring films to local audiences that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to see them in movie theatres. These festivals can be large or small, annual or a one-off event.

Some film festivals offer premiere screenings and red carpet events. A jury awards prizes for best film, best directing, best acting and the like. This can include audiences voting for the most popular film. Many festivals focus on a single topic or genre (like documentary or fantasy or climate change) and this determines the type of films shown at them.

Najla Ben Abdallah at the Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia. Houssem Abida/Wikimedia Commons

Festivals act as community-builders. They are also spaces where lifelong friendships and working relationships can be formed through the love of cinema. They don’t just programme films, they also hold workshops and discussion panels, and often other cultural exhibits of art, music and performance.

Filmmakers and industry professionals might attend them to market and discuss their films, often with the hopes of attracting funding to make their next movie or find distribution deals. Local audiences have the opportunity to chat with film directors and learn about the production process. Emerging talent is often showcased in pitching forums.

How has the film festival grown in Africa?

The oldest film festivals on the continent include:

Other festivals have followed, like the Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania, the Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco and Afriff (the African International Film Festival) in Nigeria. Some of these are also partnering with festivals outside the continent.

Fespaco

Two chapters in the book focus on festivals in Africa. One is on the mythology of Fespaco and how this event has remained the continent’s most prestigious meeting place for cinephiles despite ongoing threats of political instability, regional insecurity and financial precarity.

Another chapter focuses on how the Festival Films Femmes Afrique and the StLouis’ Docs in Senegal are innovating how networking can build capacity and boost the circulation of African films.

How does the book cover African film festivals overseas?

I’m interested in what happens to knowledge, cultural expressions and creative forms that arise in Africa and then travel around the globe and adapt to new places.

Chapters in the book focus on North American film festivals whose mandates include providing a meeting place and space of celebration and dialogue between diverse local communities and African cultures in the diaspora.

Vues d’Afrique is North America’s largest and longest-running African film festival. It was established in Montreal in 1984 to introduce African and Creole cinema and culture to Quebec and Canada. One of its goals is to forge links with other African cinema festivals around the world.

Vues d’Afrique

Over the years it has expanded its offerings to include conferences, art exhibitions, film training projects for school kids, and year round screenings. Every July, it hosts free public moonlight screenings in a park that attract thousands.

In 2015, the first edition of the New York Forum of Amazigh Film was established. It celebrates north Africa’s Amazigh history, culture and language through film.

In Mexico, FestAfro (the Festival Artistico Audiovisual Afrodescendencias) was founded in 2021 by a group of researchers, artists, activists and communities. The goal is to celebrate Afro-Mexican identity through a multidisciplinary travelling showcase of arts.

Festivals like these, from Brazil to the UK, are discussed in the book. They highlight the value of film festivals for the exchange of living cultural heritage between communities and societies.

How does cultural exchange happen at festivals?

In the book there’s a fascinating case study. In 2022 and 2023, three different African film festivals in Brazil and Canada chose the same film to screen so that they could compare audience reactions. The film, produced in Kenya a year earlier, was Maïmouna Jallow’s Tales of the Accidental City.

Chief Nyamweya/Inkwiri

Her Nairobi comedy looks at social justice issues through five characters who gather over a Zoom call for a court-ordered anger management class. The filmmaker attended all three festivals and led conversations with very different audiences in Curitiba, Winnipeg and Montreal.

In Brazil, the audience was in laughter and tears. The injustices shown in the film resonated with the experiences of members of local Black and Indigenous communities present. Winnipeg’s audience had a large presence of Kenyan migrants, who laughed harder at certain comedy scenes than other audience members. They related their lived experiences back home to those of the film’s characters. Many viewers in Montreal couldn’t recall when they had laughed so hard at a screening at the festival. With many women present, the conversation also focused on the vital role of African women in shaping their own, authentic stories on screen.

The experiment showed how inter-cultural conversation can be sparked by a film and how it is programmed at a festival, creating a space of sharing and learning about a diverse world.

This book presents cultural heritage, exhibited through film festivals, as a shared human and transglobal concern that must move across borders and be passed on to future generations.

When cultures are forgotten, humanity loses access to perspectives and worldviews that could help address life’s challenges. A broad, diverse understanding of history and culture helps us see where we are and how we arrived here.

– Film festivals take African cultural heritage around the world – and help keep it alive
– https://theconversation.com/film-festivals-take-african-cultural-heritage-around-the-world-and-help-keep-it-alive-286698

August 19, 2026

The bloodsucking insect with a saw for a mouth: how the tsetse fly bites through almost anything

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Markus Engstler, Chair and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg

Tsetse flies transmit some of Africa’s most persistent parasitic diseases. They have affected human health, livestock production and rural development for generations, across a region spanning millions of square kilometres in 37 sub-Saharan countries.

Human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is caused by two species of single-celled parasites. Others infect wild and domestic animals, causing animal trypanosomosis, often called nagana in cattle.

Sustained surveillance, diagnosis and treatment have driven sleeping sickness to historically low levels, a remarkable public-health success. But animal trypanosomiasis remains a major problem, causing anaemia, weight loss, reduced productivity and fertility and death. For rural communities that depend on cattle for food, income and for use in tilling fields, the consequences extend far beyond the loss of individual animals. Across affected regions, the economic costs run into billions of US dollars.

Tsetse flies move between hosts. They take blood from humans and a wide range of wild and domestic animals, including elephants, buffalos, rhinos, hippos, turtles and monitor lizards. By moving between hosts, tsetse flies can connect wildlife, livestock and humans in complex transmission networks.

We are molecular cell biologists and parasitologists researching vectors, and we have extensive laboratory and field experience studying African trypanosomes and tsetse flies. Our work focuses on the interactions between parasites and their insect vectors, including the adaptations that allow tsetse flies to thrive across diverse ecosystems.

For a recent study, we assembled an international team spanning parasite biology and cell biology in Würzburg, vector research at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi and insect biomechanics in Kiel. We wanted to understand how the insects can penetrate such diverse skin types.

We detailed the anatomy and mechanical properties of the feeding apparatus and measured the forces a fly exerts while probing. We found its ability to pierce skin wasn’t due to one special “tool”. Instead, rows of tiny teeth, strong backward strokes of the mouthparts and flexible behaviour work together. The flies used the same pressure on very different natural skins and, when faced with reptile skin, selected softer gaps between scales.

This versatility helps explain how tsetse flies feed across such a broad host range – and therefore why they are so effective at carrying parasites among wildlife, livestock and humans.

More than a century of fighting tsetse

People have tried to control tsetse flies for more than a century. In Zimbabwe, for example, wildlife killing was used from at least the 1920s, while vegetation clearing continued into the early 1960s. Such environmentally destructive approaches have long been abandoned. Today, control methods include insecticide-treated cattle, odour-baited traps and targets, aerial spraying and the release of sterilised males.

These methods can eliminate local populations, but controlling tsetse across their vast and diverse range remains difficult and expensive.

We approached the problem from a different direction. Instead of asking how to kill a tsetse fly, we asked what makes it such a successful bloodsucker. The animals it feeds on present very different barriers, from relatively soft, pliable mammalian skin to the tougher, scaly skin of big reptiles. How can the same tiny fly bite such different animals?

To find out, our team combined high-tech imaging with micro-mechanical experiments. We filmed flies feeding, measured how strongly they attach and recorded the forces generated as their mouthparts moved through different types of skin.

Using natural tissues and artificial skin models, we could study the tsetse feeding apparatus as a complete biomechanical system.

A tsetse fly taking a blood meal from human skin equivalents placed on sheep blood. The skin equivalents were stacked to provide sufficient biting depth for the fly. Vibratory movements of the fly’s maxillae can be observed during feeding. The video was recorded in collaboration with Christian Reuter.

A microscopic saw rather than a syringe

At the tip of the tsetse proboscis – the long, tube-like mouthpart it uses to pierce skin and drink blood – is an elaborate structure called the labellum, armed with rows of tiny teeth. During feeding, the labellum opens inside the skin, exposing these teeth, while the fly repeatedly pushes and pulls its proboscis through the tissue.

The forces generated when the fly pulled backwards were greater overall than those used to push forwards. That is counterintuitive: one might expect a piercing organ to do most of its work while being pushed into the skin. But once the labellum opens, its teeth face outwards. The stronger backward strokes may therefore act like a cutting motion, dragging those teeth through tissue, disrupting it and enlarging the feeding site.

This is fundamentally different from how a mosquito feeds. A mosquito uses extremely fine mouthparts to locate and tap individual blood vessels. Tsetse flies are pool feeders: they damage tissue until blood accumulates and then drink from the resulting pool.

If the mosquito feeding apparatus is a sophisticated syringe, the tsetse proboscis is closer to a microscopic saw.

The real superpower is versatility

We expected a fly capable of feeding on such different animals to possess some exceptional adaptation: enormous penetration forces, extraordinary grip or uniquely powerful mouthparts.

We found none.

Instead, tsetse flies succeed through subtle adaptations working together. They penetrated different types of skin using broadly comparable forces. Faced with reptile skin, they targeted softer regions between scales. Their feet provided sufficient grip, but their attachment was not exceptional compared with other insects.

The real tsetse superpower may therefore be versatility – combining anatomy, mechanics and behaviour to overcome very different physical challenges.

Could understanding the bite help fight the disease?

Our research does not immediately provide a new method for controlling tsetse flies. But it reveals an overlooked aspect of vector biology (how diseases are spread).

To transmit a parasite, a tsetse must successfully land, hold on, penetrate the skin, feed and escape the host’s defences. Each step presents a physical challenge, and potentially a vulnerability.

Understanding these mechanics could eventually inspire new ways to interfere with feeding or improve control technologies that exploit tsetse behaviour.

But our findings also help explain why these flies are such successful disease vectors. Its many small adaptations work remarkably well together. The result is a tiny fly capable of taking blood from an astonishing range of animals. For a parasite looking for its next host, it is difficult to imagine a better ride.

– The bloodsucking insect with a saw for a mouth: how the tsetse fly bites through almost anything
– https://theconversation.com/the-bloodsucking-insect-with-a-saw-for-a-mouth-how-the-tsetse-fly-bites-through-almost-anything-289260

August 19, 2026

Why isn’t the accounting profession more diverse? Research points to the real levers of change

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Sedzani Musundwa, Associate professor, University of South Africa

For the past few decades, universities, employers and professional bodies globally have invested in mentoring programmes, scholarships and student support initiatives to diversify careers such as professional accounting. The assumption has been that if talented students have help to overcome barriers, representation will improve.

For many socioeconomically marginalised people, going to university is seen as the key to a better life. Accounting has been one of the professions that promises stable jobs, financial security and upward social mobility. But while more students are getting through the university gates, building a successful career in accounting has proved much harder than simply earning a degree.

The most recent World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report (2025), which has tracked gender disparities since 2006, reports that, at the current rate of progress, full gender parity remains an estimated 123 years away. The gap is clear when you compare educational attainment with career progression. Although women now outperform men in tertiary education globally, they account for only 29.5% of senior managers with tertiary qualifications. Similarly, women’s representation in top management increased only modestly, from 25.7% in 2015 to 28.1% in 2024. The pace of progress has slowed since 2022.

In South Africa, too, where I am based as an accounting professor, changing gender and racial representation in the profession has been slower than expected.

To understand why, researcher Joanne Sopt and I reviewed 81 studies examining how minority students globally have been supported over decades, from university entry to professional accounting practice.

We found that early initiatives focused on helping students overcome what were seen as individual shortcomings. The solutions offered were tutoring, scholarships and mentoring. While these programmes remain important, they assumed that the main challenge was preparing students to fit into existing institutions.

More recent research we reviewed tells a different story. It shows that success is shaped just as much by the environments students enter as by their own ability. Across countries, the evidence shows that meaningful support goes beyond financial assistance. It includes visible role models, culturally responsive teaching, strong mentoring relationships and institutions that recognise the diverse experiences students bring with them.

It’s also clear from the research that solutions should fit each context (local histories, identities and institutional realities).

Our findings have implications far beyond accounting. It is the responsibility of universities, employers and professional bodies to create environments where everyone has an equal chance to thrive.

The next phase of transformation must be to make changes to institutions to fit the people they were created to serve.

Framing inequality

Our literature review included 81 peer-reviewed accounting research articles. They investigated diversity and marginalisation in accounting education and in the profession worldwide.

The research showed a shift in how scholars understand inequality.

In the early 1990s they tended to frame under-representation as an individual problem. If students struggled to succeed, the response was to provide more support. Tutoring, mentoring and financial assistance programmes were designed to help them catch up.

These initiatives assumed that the main barriers lay within students themselves.

From around the 2020s, however, researchers began asking a different question. They asked why capable students continued to experience obstacles even after receiving support and why even some qualified professionals did too.

This moved attention away from perceived individual deficits towards the environments in which people were expected to learn and work. The question was how inclusive these environments were.

Persisting patterns

Across continents, countries and demographic groups, the same patterns emerged. Students were attracted to accounting because it promised good jobs. Yet many reported feeling that they did not belong. They encountered language barriers, limited access to professional networks, few role models who shared their backgrounds, and institutional cultures that assumed everyone entered university or the workplace with similar experiences and resources.

Some interventions proved remarkably effective. Joining professional associations strengthened students’ sense of belonging. Small changes, such as using cream-coloured rather than white examination paper for students with dyslexia, improved accessibility. Inclusive language in recruitment material influenced whether women and LGBTQ+ applicants perceived accounting as a profession where they belonged. Mentoring, culturally responsive teaching and meaningful role models all made a positive difference.

Perhaps the most striking finding from our review was that many of the barriers that professionals encountered had little to do with their technical skills and knowledge. Instead, they related to organisational culture, informal expectations, psychological safety and the pressure to conform to dominant professional norms.

Many professionals described feeling they had to continually prove their competence, adapt their language or behaviour, or hide aspects of their identity in order to succeed. These are not problems that can be solved by another scholarship or mentoring programme alone.

Culture and belonging

Around the world, organisations of various kinds are asking why decades of diversity initiatives have not produced the transformation they hoped for.

Our findings suggest that mentoring, scholarships and student support should continue to form part of the broader strategy of restructuring institutional culture, recruitment practices, promotion systems, curriculum design and the everyday experiences of belonging within organisations.

Success should no longer be measured only by how many people from historically disadvantaged groups enter a profession. It’s also about whether those professions have changed sufficiently for diverse talent to flourish.

Mentoring and scholarships open doors. But lasting change depends on what people encounter once they walk through them.

– Why isn’t the accounting profession more diverse? Research points to the real levers of change
– https://theconversation.com/why-isnt-the-accounting-profession-more-diverse-research-points-to-the-real-levers-of-change-289618

August 18, 2026

Millions of Africans are displaced without crossing a border – and their needs are often overlooked

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By David James Cantor, Director of the Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study, University of London

The eruption of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in May 2026 sparked a major crisis.

Transmissions and deaths are skyrocketing, and no vaccine is currently available.

This virus is notably prevalent in settlements and communities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and communities. This happened too with the Mpox outbreak that started in the Congo in 2025 and spread to the rest of the world.

But who are “internally displaced persons”? And why are they disproportionately affected by disease outbreaks such as Ebola and mpox?

Across Africa, there were estimated to be 31.7 million people living in internal displacement camps as of the end of 2025. More than 29 million of them were displaced due to conflict and violence.

Sudan hosted the largest number of internally displaced people of any country in the world – approximately 9.1 million of its total population of around 52 million. Another 2.8 million remained displaced outside the country as refugees.

Over 20 years ago, I began doctoral research in Colombia with more than 40 displaced communities living in conflict-affected regions. This has since extended to include research on Mexico, central America and Yemen. I then helped set up networks to support researchers and policymakers working on internal displacement in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. This work led to the recently published Handbook of Internal Displacement.

Based on this work, it’s become clear that the issue of “internal displacement” remains poorly understood despite the very large number of people involved and their significant role in shaping social trends.

This may be about to change. The Handbook includes expert input from over 70 researchers globally. Its 45 thematic chapters offer a comprehensive reference point for work across many different fields. These include sociology, politics, economics, history and law, as well as development, humanitarian, migration and conflict studies.

The Handbook opens up new ways of thinking and engaging with the consequences of internal displacement in Africa and beyond.

It also offers a crucial resource. It highlights the fact that internally displaced people – rather than refugees – make up the bulk of displacement globally. This points to the need for resources to be allocated to the challenges that come in the wake of displacement.

Internally displaced people

Global policy describes internally displaced people as those

who have been forced (…) to flee or to leave their homes (…) and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.

The term is a convenient policy label to distinguish them from cross-border refugees. But, within their own countries, IDPs are really just “the displaced”.

Africa records the highest levels of war-related internal displacement of any region globally. In 2025, even with the new wars raging in the Middle East, Africa remained the epicentre with 14.5 million new internal displacements.

In 2024, it saw vastly more displaced people (11.5 million) than every other region combined (8.5 million).

The scale of displacement reflects the high number of countries in Africa that are in conflict, as well as the large, protracted wars that displace huge numbers of people each year. This includes the DRC, which reported 9.7 million war-related internal displacements in 2025.

Yet war is just one driver of displacement.

What’s driving displacement

In Africa, a multitude of climate-related hazards – such as cyclones, flooding and drought – generate cascading risks. In 2025 alone, they pushed an additional 2.9 million internal displacements.

Other displacement drivers in Africa include criminal, extremist and terrorist violence and large-scale development projects.

Each driver further weakens people’s ability to cope, while displacement itself creates additional pressures. In many African nations, war and disasters occur simultaneously and can interact in ways that intensify internal displacement.

The impact

Internal displacement can disrupt lives to a shocking extent.

It has wide-ranging effects on society, affecting the communities that host IDPs, the places they pass through and the home communities to which some eventually return.

Unlike refugees, IDPs stay within their country and remain exposed to the dangers and devastation caused by the conflicts and disasters they fled.

Although they may be citizens, they are often treated with suspicion and end up marginalised and hidden in local populations. Where they lose access to land, housing, work, and social and family support networks, they often experience high levels of poverty.

These accumulated disadvantages often make IDPs, such as those in the DRC, more vulnerable to illness and death than other war-affected populations (including refugees).

African countries have traditionally relied on settlements and camps as a way of responding to displacement.

The “protected villages” policy in Uganda was an early example of encampment, resettling displaced people into villages ostensibly removed from the conflict between the government and the Lord’s Resistance Army in the 1990s. More recently, the majority of the 4 million displaced Ethiopians in 2023 lived in camps or camp-like settlements.

Internal displacement in Africa is increasingly an urban phenomenon, and feeds into wider trends towards urbanisation.

As a result, cities and towns, such as Mogadishu and Baidoa in Somalia, now host many displaced people. This creates a whole new set of development challenges.

The losses caused by displacement can undermine development. National development plans can also be thrown off course when people are no longer where those plans expect (or want) them to be.

In cities, heightened pressure on local services also creates a need for flexible and imaginative urban planning.

What needs to change

Africa is the only region globally where governments have created regional legal treaties for protecting IDPs.

For example, in 2006, countries in central Africa created a pioneering Protocol on the Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons. The African Union then spearheaded the Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa in 2009.

But IDPs still attract relatively little political interest or funding from the wider international community. Unlike refugees, they are too often seen by donors as a faraway problem confined to poorer parts of the world.

This is wrong. Disasters create many IDPs each year, even in countries like the US. What is more, the low profile of internal displacement has real-life consequences for IDPs in regions like Africa. One study found that between 2010 and 2019, per capita health aid to people displaced by conflict was less than one-seventh of that provided to refugees.

Aid cuts by major donors like the US, the UK and Germany in the 2020s have exacerbated the problem. This has forced aid agencies into “hyper-prioritisation” – using scarce resources only for the most urgent needs – since 2025.

Across its many chapters, the research in the Handbook of Internal Displacement underlines that internal displacement – and the vulnerabilities it creates and worsens – cannot be ignored. The needs of internally displaced people (and host communities) must be properly factored into social assistance, humanitarian and development interventions.

The Handbook offers detailed guidance on how this can be done, while supporting the efforts of displaced people to protect themselves during crises and overcome displacement-related vulnerabilities.

– Millions of Africans are displaced without crossing a border – and their needs are often overlooked
– https://theconversation.com/millions-of-africans-are-displaced-without-crossing-a-border-and-their-needs-are-often-overlooked-289499

August 18, 2026

The soil’s early warning system: microbes can predict desertification before plants start to die

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Marc Van Goethem, Microbial ecologist, University of Pretoria

Microbial ecology (the study of how tiny microbes interact with each other and their environment) underpins the health of every ecosystem on Earth. The microbes living in soil recycle nutrients, support plant growth and help ecosystems respond to environmental change. In this explainer, microbial ecologist Marc Van Goethem tells us why microbes are critical to human life. They can also provide an early warning if Africa’s drylands are approaching ecological tipping points, offering new ways to monitor and protect vulnerable landscapes.

What is microbial ecology, and why is it an important field of research?

Microbial ecology is the study of how microorganisms, like bacteria, fungi and the viruses that infect them, interact with one another and their environment. Together, microorganisms exert considerable influence on their immediate environment. Some examples include the breakdown of organic matter to release nutrients into the soil, digesting the food in our guts, and storing carbon dioxide.

Studying microbial ecology is an effort to make sense of these combined biological and chemical processes in nature. This information can then be used to predict how an environment might respond to future changes or why, for example, crops grow better in one field compared to another. Microorganisms quietly shape our lives even though they get less recognition than more easily observed animals and plants.

What are soil microbes and why do they matter?

Soil microorganisms are very small (micrometres); we can only see them under powerful microscopes. Their small sizes, however, make their roles in nature even more profound. In soils, bacteria, fungi and viruses form microbial communities that operate like mini-cities. We call these communities “microbiomes”.

On a single grain of sand you could find thousands of bacterial cells interacting by sharing nutrients and genetic material. They also compete for space and resources by producing antibiotics, which are compounds that kill other bacteria. Around 70%-80% of clinically used antibiotics originate from soil bacteria like Streptomyces.

The soil microbiome is central to the carbon cycle. Microbes can absorb carbon and bury it in the soil, or degrade plant and animal matter, which releases carbon into the atmosphere. These processes are extremely sensitive to environment changes. Increasing temperatures, caused by global warming, may increase microorganism activity. Buried carbon may be sent back into the atmosphere. Too much atmospheric carbon acts as a blanket and increases global temperatures – and the cycle escalates.

Your work suggests that changes in microbial communities could provide an early warning of desertification. How can organisms we can’t see tell us so much about the health of an ecosystem?

My work hinges on the knowledge that microorganisms respond fast to environmental changes – faster than plants or animals can. Microorganisms detect and react to signals that we can’t perceive. Some examples include changes in soil pH, moisture content or temperature.

Microbial responses are leading indicators of changes to temperature, water or physical disturbance in soil and the health of the above-ground ecosystem. I believe we can use this knowledge before we see visible changes like plant death.

What do you hope your work will reveal about how Africa’s drylands respond to climate change and how could that knowledge help scientists and policymakers better protect these landscapes?

The central aim of this work is to identify the tipping points at which drylands begin to lose the resilience provided by the soil microbiome. The proposed research will collect representative soil samples from four African deserts: the Namib, Kalahari, Sahara and Sahel. I hope to provide meaningful data points, like data about which microbes are present or absent in soils, and what they are doing under various environmental conditions across drylands to map the microbiome across stages of desertification. Desertification is the process in which fertile lands in dry areas completely lose the ability to support plant, animal and human life.

These samples I hope to collect will come from

intact ecosystems
at-risk ecosystems
degraded soils.

Through metagenomic sequencing (where we sequence the genomes of the entire microbiome simultaneously) and associated metadata (climate and soil chemistry information) we hope to identify the markers of desertification. This could be in the form of a specific microorganism disappearing and the mini-city then collapsing, or the microbiome losing an important function such as making nitrogen available to a plant.

Using these insights, I hope to provide a measure that shows the difference between healthy dryland microbiomes and those actively experiencing desertification.

This information will be provided as a reference accessible by researchers and policymakers to compare data from their drylands to estimate whether their landscapes are at risk of desertification.

– The soil’s early warning system: microbes can predict desertification before plants start to die
– https://theconversation.com/the-soils-early-warning-system-microbes-can-predict-desertification-before-plants-start-to-die-289000

August 18, 2026

What happened when a South African school switched from English to bilingual science tests

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Robyn Tyler, Senior Researcher, University of the Western Cape

South African no-fee primary schools use African languages as well as English for teaching and testing. Before 2025, children started learning in their home language in the first three years and then switched to English in Grade 4 (aged 10 and 11). Now, bilingual education is extending gradually into the upper primary grades.

South Africa’s public basic education system serves roughly 12.7 million learners. Eighty percent of these learn through a language that is not their home language.

I am an education researcher with a special interest in language across the curriculum in multilingual contexts. In a recent case study of a bilingual science learning intervention in a Cape Town school, I wanted to know how effective it was to teach and test in more than one language, and what parents thought of the approach. Past studies hadn’t made it clear whether parents usually supported it.

The study found that teaching and testing science topics in the children’s home language and English produced much better results than using English only, and that parents were in favour of it.

The results suggest that bilingual classroom teaching and assessment could be used more widely, and it’s important to make sure parents understand why.

Better test results using two languages

The study took place in a school in Khayelitsha, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town. The no-fee school attracts learners from a wide area because it is well run. At the time of the study, the school language policy was English medium in all subjects in Grade 4, including science. The principal, however, agreed to try the bilingual approach in science for the study.

We gave 168 Grade 4 learners a bilingual science textbook in English and isiXhosa, their home language. The same teacher taught four classes bilingually, and learners used both languages in writing in their exercise books. One class was given a bilingual test while the others wrote the conventional English-only test.

The findings showed that children were more engaged in their learning in class compared with similar aged children who were learning in English only. In our study children contributed more to class discussion and wrote more in their exercise books.

In addition, those who wrote the bilingual test, with all questions written in isiXhosa and English, scored an 86% pass rate. Those who wrote the English-only test scored a 51% pass rate.

What parents said

The parents of the children in the study said during a feedback session after the test was written that they were very happy with the programme. They commented on how the bilingual textbook connected them with their child’s learning at home. Parents said their children taught them about science while at home – making links between the world around them and the concepts they were learning at school.

One parent said:

My child came back home more interested in things happening around us.

Another mentioned their own ability to get more involved in their child’s schoolwork when using their own language:

Sometimes a parent may be busy cooking, so when they ask a question you are able to answer even if you didn’t see the question.

Similarly, a parent said:

I went through the pages and read for myself without calling my child and asking what it said.

Parents also described how using more than one language was common in their neighbourhoods. Their children were multilingual and translated for one another when something was not understood. Therefore, the bilingual model of language use at school was closer to language use at home.

One parent noted that they had high hopes for their child continuing with science as a career one day because of this strong start. Parents also wanted to know if mother tongue based bilingual education would be rolled out across the country and in all grades.

None of the parents expressed a concern about their children losing out on English.

Debates on language in the classroom

This last point is important because the dominance of English in society leads to a popular belief that the earlier children learn through English only, the better equipped they will be for the world of higher education and the workplace later on. Teachers report feeling a pressure from parents to avoid code-switching from English into an African language.

In reality, research shows that English-only education contributes to the low achievement of South African children, especially in subjects such as mathematics and science.

When parents have been surveyed on their opinions about language in education, they have usually been given an unenviable choice between monolingual English or monolingual African language instruction.

Furthermore, parents have had little to no exposure to strong models of bilingual education in English and an African language to draw on in their responses. Often the only association Black South Africans have with home language teaching is with Bantu Education, the inferior system that the apartheid state designed for Black children between 1953 and 1979.

Bilingual programmes can succeed

The bilingual science study demonstrates that when a bilingual programme is well resourced with teaching, assessment and bilingual learning materials it can produce excellent results.

Furthermore, when parents are well informed about bilingual learning, they support it. Parents can appreciate the positive impact of children’s full participation in their learning, both for school and for life outside school.

– What happened when a South African school switched from English to bilingual science tests
– https://theconversation.com/what-happened-when-a-south-african-school-switched-from-english-to-bilingual-science-tests-289528

August 18, 2026

Governments shouldn’t rely on AI to decide who gets a social grant: inside a South African court case

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Mark Richard Gaffley, Visiting Research Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand

South Africa introduced a digital social assistance programme in 2020 to identify who was eligible for its Social Relief of Distress grant. The country’s High Court later found that the automated vetting system it relied on was unconstitutional and invalid.

The case was brought by the Institute for Economic Justice, a South African think tank, and #PayTheGrants, a civil society movement that advocates for economic justice. The government appealed the decision and the case will be heard by the Supreme Court of Appeal. Legal scholar Mark Gaffley explains the significance of the ruling.

How does the system work and why’s there a court case about it?

The South African Social Security Agency launched the Social Relief of Distress grant in May 2020. It was intended to provide temporary relief for the most destitute – that is almost one-third of South Africans.

To qualify for the R370-a-month (US$23) grant (almost 50% less than the food poverty line), recipients had to receive no income or any other grant. Government estimated that the target group was approximately 18.3 million people.

Though the grant was digital-first from the start, new regulations passed in April 2022 shifted its administration from under the Disaster Management Act to the Social Assistance Act. These regulations limited applications to online-only and in many cases treated verdicts given by automated decision-making systems as definitive. This stringent application process made the grant the first large-scale fully digital social grant programme of its kind in the country. It worked by verifying applicants’ income through automated bank account checks and government database records.

The updated digital application process led to a drastic reduction of successful applicants. At inception 16 million people benefited from the grant. By 2022 this had fallen to 5.6 million. Because of this, the government was also able to cut the grant budget by billions of rands.

In July 2023, the Institute for Economic Justice initiated court proceedings to contest the grant process. They argued that the steps taken by government to digitise the grant process did not adhere to obligations under the country’s constitution. The constitution allows for the progressive realisation of access to social assistance – meaning that socioeconomic rights cannot be realised immediately but over time.

The institute argued that the regulations and the application procedure resulted in the irrational, arbitrary and unfair denial of social assistance to millions of people legally entitled to receive it.

In January 2025, the High Court agreed. It declared certain of the grant’s regulations unconstitutional and invalid. This included those regulations authorising automated bank verification and database checks.

The government appealed the ruling and the matter is set for hearing in the country’s Supreme Court of Appeal.

What are automated decision making systems and how are they related to AI?

Automated digital decision-making processes rely on algorithmic reasoning or machine learning to come to conclusions, based on the datasets made available to them. Historically these decisions would have been made by humans.

The decision by government to use these automated digital processes raises broader concerns, such as making decision processes opaque. In addition, for unsuccessful applicants, there were limited avenues for redress or challenge as the appeal process was also online-only.

A large number of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are relied on for decision-making are likely to incorporate automated digital decision-making processes. This means that the risks identified by this case could materialise in a wide range of scenarios involving the use of AI.

The case highlighted that automation was done in such a way that the process excluded the people it was intended to support.

It laid bare the discriminatory and exclusionary effects of deploying automated processes in the administration of public sector services.

The case stresses the need for greater awareness of the discriminatory effects of relying on automated digital systems. Discriminatory treatment may become more widespread as the uptake of AI and digital automation systems increases. Digital systems are also often seen as neutral, but they can reinforce the disadvantages that vulnerable people already experience.

Why is this such an important issue?

The case has surfaced three significant AI-related issues.

First, it carries implications for the constitutionality protected rights of millions of South Africans whose livelihoods were subjected to the algorithmic whims of automated processes making eligibility determinations.

The High Court found that the online-only application process affected:

the right to equality
the right to social security
interpretation of the bill of rights – the part of the constitution that contains the fundamental rights of all people in the country the state is required to uphold.

Second, the case calls for immense caution when using automated digital decision-making processes. They are not inherently unlawful. But if decisions rely on their reasoning, they should be monitored to ensure adherence to constitutional requirements.

For example, one criterion for determining if an applicant received an income was whether they had received any bank deposit. These deposits could have been temporary loans, or money received on behalf of someone else. This shouldn’t have been perceived as regular income.

Third, the databases the automated systems relied on were error-ridden and outdated. This likely had the effect of indicating employment when this was not the case.

Automated digital systems can only be as reliable as the data they rely on. With the grant process, this meant that they may have excluded millions of unemployed people entitled to receive the grant.

If the government’s appeal is granted, it may establish legal precedent that, unless taken to the Constitutional Court, prioritises digital efficiencies over constitutional safeguards.

In what circumstances can AI tools like this be used for these kinds of purposes?

The short answer to this question may be “how long is a piece of string?”.

Already, in the public sector, the Department of Education, Department of Home Affairs and the South African Police Service are all at various stages of integrating automated digital processes into their operations.

Careful scrutiny is needed as to whether the use of the automated systems threatens human rights and public interest. It is not too far-fetched to imagine a scenario where an education technology solution starts excluding certain learners because their responses are too abstract to be reconciled with its training data.

These same risks apply to the private sector where company operations may be more shielded from public scrutiny. This danger has already become apparent in the plethora of AI-enabled CCTV surveillance cameras operating in the country.

– Governments shouldn’t rely on AI to decide who gets a social grant: inside a South African court case
– https://theconversation.com/governments-shouldnt-rely-on-ai-to-decide-who-gets-a-social-grant-inside-a-south-african-court-case-288998