December 2025 Newsletter
As 2025 draws to a close and we reflect on the year that was and the work that lies ahead, our greatest challenge will be translating commitment into action.
This was evident at COP30 in Brazil, where nearly 200 countries agreed to strengthen national emission reduction goals and boost financial support for vulnerable nations.However, the absence of explicit commitments on fossil fuels and persistent divisions over adaptation financing seemed to reflect our current geopolitical reality in which progress is inching forward against a wave of pushback.
November 2025 Material Matters newsletter
Welcome to the first edition of Material Matters by Trialogue, your new go-to source for the latest insights shaping sustainability and ESG in South Africa and beyond. Each issue delivers sharp, actionable thinking and bite-sized updates designed to keep you informed, inspired and ahead of the curve.
In a world where planetary limits are being tested and the rules of corporate responsibility are rapidly evolving, staying ahead means understanding both the bigpicture shifts and the practical levers for change.
September 2025 Newsletter
In celebrating Heritage Month this September, we’re reminded that South Africa’s greatest strength has always been its ability to transform challenges into opportunities. However, recognising our heritage is about more than just honouring the past. It’s an opportunity to build an equitable future, one that reflects the values and aspirations of all South Africans.
With a Gini coefficient of 0.63, South Africa remains the most unequal country in the world. Youth unemployment is close to 50% and women still hold fewer than 7% of managerial positions. We need our spirit of transformation more than ever as we look for ways to address our development realities.
June 2025 Newsletter
As we celebrate National Youth Day on 16 June and embrace Youth Month, we’re reminded of the immense potential of South Africa’s young people. This year’s theme, ‘Skills for the changing world, empowering youth for meaningful economic participation’, couldn’t be more timely as we navigate the challenge of ensuring our country’s youth are equipped to succeed.
In keeping with the theme, this month’s webinar on 26 June will explore the Catch-22 our nation’s youth face in securing employment opportunities without experience. The sense of urgency to address South Africa’s burgeoning youth challenge was also palpable at the 2025 Trialogue Business in Society Conference, with featured panels on early childhood development, enabling youth entrepreneurship, growing digital skills and unlocking systemic opportunities for the country’s young.
March 2025 Newsletter
As we commemorate Human Rights Month in South Africa this March, the development sector finds itself facing an uncertain future.
The recent changes to the US Agency for International Development policies have sent shockwaves across the globe. Executive orders withdrawing or limiting support for organisations that work on reproductive health, LGBTQ+ rights, climate action and diversity initiatives threaten to undermine decades of progress on critical human rights issues. For Africa, these policy changes could have far-reaching consequences.
December 2024 Newsletter
September 2024 Newsletter
We’ve officially closed out eight months of 2024, and as the winds of change blow September into full swing we’re offered an opportunity to reflect on what has been an historical year thus far. South Africa is governed by a coalition of parties under the umbrella of a government of national unity, Eskom kept the lights on during winter with loadshedding suspended for almost six months now, interest rates set to fall and the Springboks beating the All Blacks … again. What a difference eight months can make!
June 2024 Newsletter
As we celebrate Youth Day this June, the theme ‘Actively advancing socioeconomic gains in our democracy,’ resonates more profoundly than ever in the wake of South Africa’s seismic election results.
For the first time in our 30-year democratic history, we are confronted with a coalition government, the demand of an electorate frustrated by decades of social challenges and the failure of our leaders to adequately address our nation’s past.
March 2024 Newsletter
December 2023 Newsletter
September 2023 Newsletter
June 2023 Newsletter
This year, as we celebrate youth month under the theme ‘Accelerating youth economic emancipation for a sustainable future’, we reflect on the importance of initiatives that can help fortify our young people to meet their future challenges.
March 2023 Newsletter
March is a month to celebrate human rights. On 8 March, we celebrated International Women’s Day – part of Women’s History Month – and on 23 March, we will celebrate Human Rights Day.
campaign explains, equity means recognising that everyone’s circumstances are different, so equal opportunities can serve to exclude rather than include. Instead, equity demands that we allocate the resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome for everyone – a shift that acknowledges we haven’t all had the same advantages or opportunities in society
December 2022 Newsletter
As the year draws to a close, we have a lot of developmental shifts to mull over, including resolutions passed at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27), which was held in Egypt in November. The United Nations has proposed a loss and damage fund to assist those countries most vulnerable to the effect of climate change. Although this seems positive, it shouldn’t be forgotten that similar promises to developing countries have yet to be fulfilled.
September 2022 Newsletter
Dear reader
South Africa’s Heritage Month is traditionally a time to reflect on social cohesion, shared national identity and nation building. It is difficult to focus on a social compact, however, while we continue to live in a country that is suffering the effects of State Capture and corruption.
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, chair of the State Capture Commission of Inquiry, recently asserted that a reboot of State Capture is not unthinkable, and one of the ways to guard against it is to rethink our majority party system of governance.
Electoral reform is a key goal of the recently established Defend our Democracy campaign, a broad coalition of business, organised labour, civil society groups, faith-based and community organisations, academia and the media.
June 2022 Newsletter
Dear reader
Young people advanced the cause of freedom in South Africa, on 16 June 1976 – but on the 46th anniversary of the Soweto student uprising, our youth are facing a barrage of challenges that are putting their future in peril, from youth unemployment and persistent inequality to the high cost of living and the climate crisis.
The theme of Youth Day – and indeed Youth Month – is ‘Promoting sustainable livelihood and resilience of young people for a better tomorrow’. This is an urgent mandate, starting with initiatives that drive employment and entrepreneurship. Examples include the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI) and the Youth Employment Service (YES), a non-profit established by the private sector in 2018 to create job opportunities for unemployed youth. Companies are also addressing some of the problems facing young South Africans – read Momentum Metropolitan’s case study on seeking a solution to the complex issue of youth unemployment on the Trialogue Knowledge Hub.
March 2022 Newsletter
Dear reader
We were optimistic that 2022 would offer a reprieve from some of the challenges of the past few years – a waning pandemic and fragile economic recovery seemed to promise hope. Then, on 24 February, Russia invaded Ukraine, Europe’s frontline democracy. The world watched in dismay as President Vladimir Putin put his country’s nuclear forces on high alert.
The crisis has galvanised companies all over the world to respond, from heeding the call to sanction Russia to providing active support to Ukraine by way of donations of cash and medical supplies, fundraising campaigns, and more. For those companies wishing to formulate a more structured response, there are good practice guidelines and toolkits that provide practical guidance to solving some of the world’s most pressing crises.
December 2021 Newsletter
Dear reader
It’s no exaggeration to say that 2021 has tested us all immeasurably. The economic, social, and emotional fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic continues, and the civil unrest in July this year, together with regular loadshedding, have demanded extraordinary resilience from everyone in our beautiful, beleaguered nation.
There are hopeful signs on the horizon, though. The pace of Covid-19 vaccinations has picked up following South Africa’s discovery of the Omicron variant, which appears to cause milder symptoms than other variants. COP26 also delivered some reasons to be hopeful, with public, private, and cross-sector pledges showing a collective commitment towards achieving ‘net zero’ and mitigating the damaging effects of climate change (see Trialogue’s recent series on climate change and business).
September 2021 Newsletter
Dear reader
In July we experienced nine days of shocking civil unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng – the worst since 1994 A ‘perfect storm’ of factors led to the looting and violence: political opportunism, widespread hunger due to the withdrawal of the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant in April, and unprecedented levels of unemployment caused by the Covid-19 pandemic (the latest data from Statistics SA puts unemployment at 34%, or 44% using the expanded definition).
On 22 July, shortly after the civil unrest, we hosted a corporate dialogue to support CSI practitioners’ thinking about how to assist colleagues and communities in the wake of the looting as well as how to address some of the root issues that led to the unrest. Read more about the dialogue here.
May 2021 Newsletter
Dear reader
In an extraordinary move, the United State of America has thrown its support behind the waiver of intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines. This action will result in poorer countries being able to manufacture their own vaccines and speed up vaccination drives, which will ultimately ensure the survival of many people. We have activists from South Africa, India and all over the globe, and some lawmakers in the US, to thank for this development.
The pandemic has highlighted the fact that the actions of nations have become more intertwined in our
interconnected world, illustrating that building back better is a collective and global effort.
February 2021 Newsletter
Dear reader
We ushered in the New Year amidst a second wave of Covid-19 infections – but the arrival of the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines on our shores on 1 February has given the country some much-needed hope. An AstraZeneca vaccine trial in South Africa has confirmed 100% protection against severe disease and hospitalisation, which should significantly alter the trajectory of the pandemic. That said, there is still much uncertainty ahead, with economic recovery dependent on several factors, including how quickly the vaccine is rolled out, and whether a potential third wave of Covid-19 is likely.
There is no doubt that 2021 will be a challenging year for business. Declining corporate profitability will have a negative impact on CSI budgets, and many of the disastrous consequences of the pandemic remain with us, including widespread hunger. However, we at Trialogue remain optimistic about the possibility of building back better once the pandemic has been brought under control.
Special Edition 2020 Newsletter
Dear reader
This is a truly unique opportunity for business to flex its socially responsible, ethical and innovative muscle, and for all sectors of society to explore what we can achieve when we work together creatively towards a common goal. While we know that you are more than likely inundated with Covid-19-related news, we want to do our part to ensure that you have access to curated information about how business South Africa is being affected by and, importantly, how it is responding during this unprecedented period.
Please share how your organisation is responding to Covid-19 by emailing us at info@trialogue.co.za.
December 2020 Newsletter
Dear reader
While we all know just how challenging 2020 has been for everyone, we are mere weeks away from 2021, which will bring us a step closer to a vaccine against Covid-19. Although the vaccine is no cure-all, and the effects of the pandemic will be with us for years to come, it will help to restore a sense of normalcy to society and be a factor in the reanimation of the global economy. ‘Normalcy’ is a relative term, however, since we most assuredly do not want to return to where we were at the beginning of 2020.
September 2020 Newsletter
Dear reader
Heritage Month has been notable thus far for violent protests at Clicks stores nationwide in response to a racially offensive advertisement published on its website. At the time of writing, 37 stores had been vandalised, looted and even petrol-bombed. Clicks and various other retailers have begun to remove TRESemmé products, the Unilever brand that produced the advert, from their shelves.
June 2020 Newsletter
Dear reader
What tumultuous times we are living in. It is clearer than ever that change is afoot and systemic inequality is no longer tolerable. As we see waves of protest over police brutality around the world, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in the United States, we cannot ignore our own experiences of police brutality, aimed largely at the poorest and most vulnerable citizens in the country. A recent report indicates that more than ten people died at the hands of the police and military during South Africa’s national lockdown – a jarring reminder that the legacy of historic injustice, violence and prejudice remain with us. Our country’s civil society has called for greater accountability and the restructuring of our security forces – much like the call in the US.
April 2020 Newsletter
Dear reader
This is a truly unique opportunity for business to flex its socially responsible, ethical and innovative muscle, and for all sectors of society to explore what we can achieve when we work together creatively towards a common goal. While we know that you are more than likely inundated with Covid-19-related news, we want to do our part to ensure that you have access to curated information about how business South Africa is being affected by and, importantly, how it is responding during this unprecedented period.
March 2020 Newsletter
Dear reader
The urgency with which all sectors of society must act to address South Africa’s gaping socioeconomic divide is only reinforced by Covid-19. While we heed the government’s decisive call to curb the spread of the virus, we are also compelled to consider the far-reaching impact that it could have on our already disenfranchised and under resourced communities.
December 2019 Newsletter
Dear reader
I’m sure you’ll agree that 2019 has been a challenging year, not just in South Africa, but across the world. Community protests, crime and violence – particularly committed by men against women and children, poor education outcomes, a tough economic climate and a dire lack of jobs and leadership, the consistently felt impact of climate change. These are just some of the pressing social issues that the latest edition of the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook talks to, compelling business to respond with urgency.