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Global Citizen - In conversation with Rohitesh Dhawan

23 October 2023 | Story Carmenita Redcliffe-Paul

The University of the Free State (UFS) and the South African Chamber of Commerce United Kingdom (SACC UK) are pleased to invite you to the next conversation of the Global Citizen Series.

SACC UK representative, Director of Mindofafox, futurist, and bestselling author, Chantell Ilbury, will facilitate this thought-provoking and engaging conversation between UFS Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Francis Petersen, and President and Chief Executive of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), Rohitesh Dhawan.

The discussion will explore the strategic priorities and breakthroughs in the mining and metals industry in relation to critical areas of climate and environmental resilience, social performance, governance, ethics and transparency, and innovation for sustainability.

Dhawan, a Fellow and faculty member of the Africa Leadership Initiative, will reflect on leadership through collaboration to enhance the contribution of mining and metals towards sustainable development, security of minerals within a changing geopolitical environment and the progress that is possible when citizens collectively focus on improving the lives of others and our planet.

Participate in the Global Citizen event in person or online via live stream.

Kindly RSVP on the links below and indicate your preferred method of participation.

Join the Global Citizen in person in London, United Kingdom

Date: Wednesday, 8 November 2023

Time: 17:30-19:30

Venue: SOAS Brunei Gallery – SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Sq, London WC1B 5DQ, United Kingdom

RSVP: Friday, 27 October 2023

Enquiries: Adrienne Hall E: adrienne@creative-partnerships.co.uk or T: +44 7469 219157

Light refreshments will be served after the event.

Join the Global Citizen event online

Date: Wednesday, 8 November 2023

SA time 20:00-21:00 SAST

UK time 18:00-19:00 GMT

RSVP here by Friday, 3 November 2023

The live stream link will be shared upon RSVP.

About Rohitesh Dhawan

Rohitesh Dhawan was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of ICMM in April 2021. He is passionate about the transformative power of mining, particularly in emerging markets where he has spent two-thirds of his life. Dhawan is a Fellow and faculty member of the Africa Leadership Initiative and a Raisina fellow of the Asian Forum on Global Governance. He serves on the advisory boards of the Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment, Concordia, and Resolve.

News Archive

Expert in Africa Studies debunks African middle class myth

2016-05-10

From left: Prof Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS), Joe Besigye from the Institute of Reconciliation and Social Justice, and Prof Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor at the CAS and guest lecturer for the day.
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

Until recently, think tanks from North America, the African Development Bank, United Nations Development Plan, and global economists have defined the African middle class based purely on monetary arithmetic. One of the claims made in the past is that anyone with a consumption power of $2 per day constitutes the middle class. Following this, if poverty is defined as monetary income below $1.5 a day, it means that it takes just half a dollar to reach the threshold considered as African middle class.

Prof Henning Melber highlighted the disparities in the notion of a growing African middle class in a guest lecture titled A critical anatomy of the African middle class(es), hosted by our Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at the University of the Free State on 4 May 2016. He is an Extraordinary Professor at the Centre, as well as Senior Adviser and Director Emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Sweden.

Prof Melber argued that it is misleading to consider only income when identifying the middle class. In his opinion, such views were advanced by promoters of the global neo-liberal project. “My suspicion is that those who promote the middle class discourse in that way, based on such a low threshold, were desperate to look for the success story that testifies to Africa rising.”

Another pitfall of such a middle-class analysis is its ahistorical contextualisation. This economically-reduced notion of the class is a sheer distortion. Prof Melber advised analysts to take cognisance of factors, such as consumption patterns, lifestyle, and political affiliation, amongst others.

In his second lecture for the day, Prof Melber dealt withthe topic of: Namibia since independence: the limits to Liberation, painting the historical backdrop against which the country’s current government is consolidating its political hegemony. He highlighted examples of the limited transformation that has been achieved since Namibia’s independence in 1990.

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