Terence Corrigan
Terence Corrigan is the Project and Publications Manager at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), where he is in overall charge of bespoke work, and long-form publications. A native of KwaZulu-Natal, he holds a BA (Hons) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg), and an MPhil from the University of Free State. He has held various positions at the IRR, South African Institute of International Affairs, SBP (formerly the Small Business Project) and the Gauteng Legislature – as well as having taught English in Taiwan. He is a regular commentator in the South African media and his interests include African governance, land and agrarian issues, political culture and political thought, corporate governance, economic growth and business policy. Corrigan is a connoisseur of films, an amateur historian and a lover of the German language.
Articles By This Author
“Opportunities” for SA’s youth, in 1976 and in 2026
I began writing this last Tuesday, 16 June, nominally “Youth Day”, but in South Africa’s political lexicon, the commemoration of the 1976 Soweto students’ uprising.
Liberalism: in search of an idea – Part 3
The 20th century saw the emergence of what has been termed New Liberalism. This was essentially a shift from focusing on removing the constraints on people to proactively assisting them. It sought to ameliorate social problems and to provide society’s less affluent with the means for their upliftment and effective participation in society.
Liberalism: in search of an idea – Part 2
As a driver of political action, liberalism manifested itself initially in demands for expanding liberties and constitutional governance, although not necessarily (indeed, not generally among liberals of the early 19th century) for comprehensive democratisation.
Liberalism: in search of an idea – Part 1
This is the first of a three-part series looking at the philosophy behind the concept of liberalism and the history that gave rise to it. The series is based on a section of my recently completed MPhil project. Michael Freeden, a British academic and expert on ideology, describes the origins of liberalism thus: “Liberalism began, broadly speaking, as a movement to release people from the social and political shackles that constrained and frequently exploited them.”
A cri de cœur that cannot quite articulate itself
While some politicians might opportunistically have attached themselves to the South African anti-apartheid struggle as a moral pantomime, Peter Hain was the real deal.
ANC faces sink-or-swim moment
The local government elections have been announced for 4 November, heralding a campaign season that will be keenly watched, and whose results will be anticipated.
Property rights in Africa’s cities: the new frontier of the urban transition
For Africa, the twenty first century promises a squarely urban future. At the turn of the new Millenium, according to the Africapolis database, just under a third of continent’s population lived in towns and cities; by 2025, this had risen to 57%; and by 2040, it is projected to reach 62%. Africa is adding tens of thousands of residents to its cities daily, each of them aspiring for the step-change in life chances that urbanisation has produced elsewhere – in Europe and North America in the nineteenth century, and in Asia in the twentieth.
Putting service back in the public service
Individual governments come and go but the apparatus of state, the public service, typically remains. It is the essential tool that enables policies and programmes to be implemented; and it is a point sometimes not grasped in public commentary that South Africa needs not only an honest, innovative political class, but on competent administration to manage the state. The latter may in fact be more important.
Teaching history: will we be tortured by the past?
The proposed history curriculum will reserve an important place for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Concluding the final topic to be assigned to Grade 12 learners – Freedom and Democracy in South Africa: Coming to Terms with the Past – the TRC is billed as “a moment of reckoning”. Should the curriculum be implemented, this will probably constitute the final subject matter studied before learners write their exams.
Promise of a professional public service
The public service is a reality in our lives, but one that we often find opaque and incomprehensible.