The way Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is being remembered recalls the outpouring of grief and iconic status Eva Peron the First Lady of Argentina was accorded.
Both the state of the nation address and budget speech didn’t leave a sense that there has been much reflection on the depth of the economic malaise gripping South Africa.
The study of Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s deputy president and new head of its governing party, is generating a great deal of heat, and not much light.
Cyril Ramaphosa has secured the leadership of South Africa’s governing ANC. But he may not be able to clean up the mess left by Jacob Zuma given the other members of the party’s leadership team.
Zuma’s last address to South Africa’s governing party, the ANC, as its president, betrayed his strange way of dealing with issues. He came across as delusional and self-indulgent.
Changing the South African system to allow for direct election would require the country to look carefully at how a directly elected president should be held accountable to parliament.
The South African Communist Party’s decision to compete in an election against its alliance partner the ANC is a watershed moment for them, with important implications for the country.
Factions within South Africa’s ANC nostalgically point to the example of Oliver Reginald Tambo whose seen as an exemplar of integrity, personifying an ideal leader who served the party selflessly.
As South Africa marks Media Freedom Day, it’s clear that its battle isn’t over. Attacks on journalists continue –through physical intimidation and there’s also the threat of new laws.
For the first time since its unbanning the ANC needs to find a new direction. Its supporters and South African voters are no longer content with resolutions that promise to end to corruption.
Instead of ignoring his accusers, South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa entertained them, tried to silence them through court, and then revealed a long-past affair of little interest.
Accusations against South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa appear to be an example of the tried-and-tested trick to discredit him and his political campaign to become the next president.
It would be no surprise if Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claims of the state spying on him turn out to be true. After all, state spy agencies have been abused before in ANC factional battles.