This week – Maternal Newborn Health Conference, new report on Rwandan genocide and briefing by Gun Free SA

On Monday, 8 May, the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference (IMNHC) 2023 kicked off at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The event will run until Thursday, 11 May.

It is the first biannual IMNHC. Going forward, the conference will be held every two years to maintain global progress towards improving maternal newborn health.

“More than 1,500 stakeholders from around the world will come together to accelerate solutions to improve maternal and newborn survival and prevent stillbirths as we strive to achieve the ambitious targets outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals,” according to the event description.

On Monday, 8 May, at 6pm, the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research will host a seminar on the topic, “Regulatory efforts to reign in digital credit: Case study of evolving regulation in Kenya”.

The paper will be presented by Radha Upadhyaya and Keren Weitzberg

“This paper charts the rise of digital credit in Kenya. It highlights evidence on the problems of digital credit, including the high cost of credit, over-indebtedness, and unfair blacklisting. The paper shows that many of the purported gains that digital credit was meant to provide have been washed out due to regulatory lags,” according to the paper’s abstract.

“It then charts the history of digital credit regulation in Kenya, which culminated in the passing of the CBK (Amendment) Bill (2021) and the introduction of regulations for digital lenders in 2022. The paper argues that, while these regulations are a step in the right direction, several concerns remain.”

Read the paper here.

Register here.



On Tuesday, 9 May, at 1pm, the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (Plaas) will host an academic seminar on “Algorithmic Plant Justice: Vegetal Beings, Gendered Relations, and the Governing of Precision Agriculture”.

The talk will be presented by Dr Laura Foster, associate professor of gender studies at Indiana University in the US.

“Robust vision for AI governance must consider how precision agriculture and smart farming are potentially managing, surveilling and optimising both women farmers and plants in ways that reinforce hierarchies of knowing and being,” according to the event description. 

“In this talk, Laura Foster considers an approach to the governing of AI that takes both gendered relations and vegetal beings into account.”

Register here.



On Tuesday at 6pm, the Institute for African Alternatives, Surplus Radical Books and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation are hosting an event marking 40 years since the founding of the United Democratic Front (UDF). 

The event will take place at the Ashley Kriel Hall, Community House, at Salt River in Cape Town.

“Launched at the Rocklands Community Hall in Cape Town on 20th August 1983, the United Democratic Front was a critical and game-changing social, political and cultural formation. Now, almost four decades after its founding, we revisit the UDF and its legacy at a time when South Africa is faced with a myriad of social, political and economic challenges,” according to the event description.



On Wednesday, 10 May, at 11am, Gun Free South Africa is hosting a media briefing on the “Prinsloo Guns Class Action”. The event will take place at the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation at the Old Granary Building in Cape Town.

“Gun Free SA has lodged papers with the Western Cape high court on behalf of affected families to hold the police accountable for deaths and injuries resulting from failed firearms management systems, which allowed police officers, including senior police official Christiaan Prinsloo, to leak guns from police stores — undetected and for years — into criminal hands,” according to the event description.

Speakers at the event include Adele Kirsten of Gun Free SA; Jason Whyte of Norton Rose Fulbright law firm; and representatives of families who have joined the class action.

For more information, contact Adele Kirsten on 082 853 9776 or [email protected]. 



On Wednesday at 12pm, Daily Maverick and Youth Capital are hosting a webinar on the topic, “It’s who you know: how to unlock social and economic opportunities for young people”.

“A wide and deep body of national and international research confirms that the people one knows has an impact on the kind of information, exposure and ultimately economic opportunities one can access,” according to the event description. 

“In a country with 8.9 million young people who are not in education, employment or training, how can ordinary South Africans like us intentionally reach across boundaries, grow young people’s circles and promote mobility?”

The discussion will be hosted by Suné Payne, Daily Maverick journalist, and speakers include Pearl Pillay, board member at the National Youth Development Agency, and Khaya Sithole, youth activist and board chairman at the Financial Sector Transformation Council. 

Register here.

On Wednesday at 2pm, the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University is hosting a roundtable discussion on the topic, “Law and Activism: Incompatible or Mutually Reinforcing?”

The aim of the discussion is to bring together students, legal practitioners and academics from South Africa and from the UK to learn from one another’s experiences on the relationships between law and activism. 

“The relationship between law and activism is an issue that has recently risen to prominence on the global stage. The debates encompass both legal research and legal practice,” according to the event description.

“Some argue that high-quality, ethical legal research or legal practice or both are incompatible with certain aspects of activism. Others emphasise synergy between the two. Others still say that law and activism — or at least law and politics — can never be fully separated and that it is disingenuous to suggest otherwise.”

Speakers include Tshegofatso Phala, executive director of the Equal Education Law Centre; Shameem Ahmad, CEO of Public Law Project; Prof Tarunabh Khaitan, head of research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights; and Prof Kate O’Regan, inaugural director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and a former judge of the South African Constitutional Court.

Register here.

On Wednesday at 6pm, the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research will host a seminar on the topic, “There’s a bug in my media: insects, colonial archives and book history”. The talk will be delivered by Isabel Hofmeyr, professor emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The paper being presented considers insects in colonial archives.

“Starting with the insects themselves, the paper considers state responses of fumigation, and what this means for definitions of books and literary genres,” according to the description.

“Situated at the intersection of insect, paper and chemicals, the article raises larger questions of entomo-politics, chemical legacies in museums and archives, and the intertwined histories of empire, war, insecticide and genocide.”

Register here.



On Thursday, 11 May, at 12pm, Open Secrets and The Continent are launching a new report, “The Secretary: How Middlemen and Corporations Armed the Rwandan Genocide”.

The launch will take place at Sandton Library, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg.

“South Africa and Rwanda embarked on two disparate paths in April 1994. One country towards a democratic election, the other towards a genocide,” according to the event description.

“A new Open Secrets investigation… is a call to hold to account arms dealers and banks involved in the Rwandan genocide. This investigative report is about the global nature of civil wars and genocide. It shows how localised genocides often have far and complex origins, involving not just victims and perpetrators but also enablers and profiteers. It is our duty to hold them to account and to remember that April in Rwanda.”

The event will be livestreamed on the Open Secrets YouTube channel.

Register here.



On Thursday at 2pm, Defend Our Democracy is hosting a Twitter space on “State Capture a year on: Institutional failure to bring Guptas and others to justice”.

Speakers at the event include Zusipe Batyi of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation; Karam Singh of Corruption Watch; Rudie Heyneke of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse; and Nonkululeko Mntambo of Defend Our Democracy.

Set a reminder here. DM/MC