PUBLIC DIALOGUE

The University of Johannesburg Confucius Institute, the Concerned Africans Forum and the UJ Library cordially invite you to a Public Dialogue entitled:

Progressive or Neoliberal ? South African Economic Policy since 1994

Prof Mongane Wally Serote, Professor of Philosophy at UJ (chair) Dr Essop Pahad, former Minister in the South African Presidency (speaker) , former Minister of Trade and Industry (speaker)

VENUE: Level 6, UJ Library, APK Kingsway Campus, University of Johannesburg DATE: Monday 23 July 2018 • TIME: 17h00-19h00 • All welcome RSVP: Bhaso Ndzendze, [email protected] About the speakers

Dr Essop Pahad has been involved in the struggle against racism and apartheid for more than 50 years. He is currently the director of Vusizwe Media and editor of The Thinker, a Pan-African quarterly journal covering broad socio-economic and socio- political issues in and on the African continent. Dr Pahad was a member of the National Assembly (1994-2008), Parliamentary Counsellor to the Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa (1994-1996), and Deputy Minister in the Office of the former Executive Deputy President (1996 to 1999). In 1999, he was appointed as Minister in the South African Presidency with specific responsibility for the Office on the Rights of the Child, the Office on the Status of Women, the Office on the Status of Disabled People, the National Youth Commission, and the Government Communication and Information System. He served in this capacity until 2008. He was also a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC), and a member of the Central Committee and Politburo of the South African Ocmmunist Party (SACP). He chairs the Board of Trustees of the South African Democracy Education Trust, and serves on the board Board and Executive Committee of the International Marketing Council.

He has published numerous articles in journals and is co-editor of Africa, The Time has Come and Africa, Define Yourself, collections of speeches by former South African President . He holds a BA degree in Political Science from Wits University, and an MA in African Politics and a PhD in History from Sussex University.

Alec Erwin is a former Deputy Minister of Finance (1994-1996), Minister of Trade and Industry (1996-2004), and Minister of Public Enterprises (2004-2008). He has also served as President of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (1996-2000). He was General Secretary of the Federation of South African Trade Unions (1979- 1983), and Education Officer of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (1986- 1988). He also served on the ANC NEC 1994 to 2007. Alec holds an Honours degree in Economics from the University of Natal, where he lectured in Economics. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and is currently an Honorary Professor of the University of the Western Cape. He also sits on the Honorary International Investment Council of President Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria, and on the Togo Presidential Investment Advisory Council. About the speakers

Mongane Wally Serote is a poet, novelist, and cultural activist. He is currently an Honorary Professor of Philosophy of the University of Johannesburg, where he heads the Indigenous Knowledge Systems project in the the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science (ACEPS). He holds an honorary doctorate from the same university. Serote was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South Africa, and went to school in Alexandra, Lesotho, and Soweto. He became involved in the Black Consciousness Movement while attending high school in Soweto, and became a member of a group known as the “township” or “Soweto” poets, with his poems reflecting political themes as well as the development of black identity. In June 1969, he was arrested under the Terrorism Act and spent nine months in solitary confinement before being released without charge. He won a Fulbright Scholarship and went to study at Columbia University in New York, where he eventually obtained a Fine Arts degree. He then lived in exile in Gaborone, Botswana, where he was involved in the Medu Art Ensemble, and in London, where he worked for the ANC’s Department of Arts and Culture. He returned to South Africa in 1990. Since then, he has served as chair of the parliamentary select committee for arts and culture, and CEO of Freedom Park. He has also founded and headed numerous NGOs active in the cultural field, and sits on various advisory boards country dealing with Indigenous Knowledge and African Renaissance issues.

In 1972 he published his first collection of poetry, Yakhal’Inkomo, which won the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize in 1973. Since then, he has published many collections of poetry as well as numerous novels. In 1993, he won the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, and in 2004, the Pablo Neruda award from the Chilean government.