Just Access: The Real Transition

With a week to go before the local government elections, PARI colleagues reflect on the mood around the country and the choices facing voters. They discuss turnout, party campaigns and promises, coalition government, youth participation and the issues shaping the election debate.

What needs to happen inside a municipality for a political promise to become a working service? Host Tasneem Essop speaks with PARI’s Sithembile Mbete, Waseem Holland and Sarah Meny-Gibert about the people, systems and decisions that connect plans and budgets to delivery. Starting with Johannesburg’s struggles to provide functioning fire services, the episode explores procurement failures, politic...

Talking to Tracy Ledger and Jugal Mahabir, this episode does a deep dive into water, electricity, affordability, free basic services, alternative energy and municipal infrastructure. It examines what affects municipal finances, and how the critical need for affordable services could be prioritised by municipalities to support development and livelihoods. Host Tasneem Essop asks what voters should...

Who decides how land is used, whose rights are recognised, and who benefits from development? Host Tasneem Essop speaks with PARI researchers Gaynor Paradza, Daniel Sher and Federica Duca about how municipal land decisions shape where people can live, work and build a future. They explore party promises about state land, housing and title deeds, the rights that formal records overlook, and the pre...

What can voters expect from a new council when the problems it inherits have been building for years? Host Tasneem Essop speaks with PARI researchers Sithembile Mbete, Kate Tissington and Jugal Mahabir about the pressures facing municipalities, from coalition politics and unstable administrations to strained finances and unreliable services. They examine what parties are promising, what municipali...

Just Access returns with The Real Democracy , a new PARI series exploring the major issues shaping South Africa’s 2026 local government elections. In this introduction, Dr Sithembile Mbete explains special voting and previews what listeners can expect from the series.

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa, not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. In this final episode, the series steps back to reflect on the deeper questions that have emerged throughout its convers...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa, not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. This bonus episode steps slightly outside the main series structure to bring forward two conversations that deepen and g...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa, not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. Episode 9 brings two central voices in the series together to ask a bigger question, what would it actually take to make...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa, not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. Episode 8 asks a practical question, what does accountability look like on the ground? Building on the previous episode’...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa, not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. Episode 7 turns to a critical question, how do we move from policy promises to real, lived change? While the language of...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa, not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. Episode 6 shifts the focus from the state to the ground, asking what the transition looks like when communities begin to...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa - not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. Episode 5 turns to the state itself  and asks what happens when the institutions meant to lead the transition are uncer...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa — not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. Episode 4 moves the conversation from national debates to the level where the transition becomes real: local government...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa — not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. Episode 3 turns to the ground beneath the transition: land. As South Africa accelerates renewable energy and green hydr...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa — not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. Episode 2 asks a harder follow-up to the first episode’s core insight: if connection isn’t the same as access, how is e...

Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa — not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity. Episode 1 begins with a fundamental question: what does justice actually look like in practice? Tasneem Essop speaks wi...