South African President Cyril Ramaphosa cheers during the results announcement ceremony in Pretoria, South Africa.
EPA-EFE/Yeshiel Panchia
Why do once mighty political parties sometimes collapse? Two reasons that have driven some into obscurity are corruption and conflicts within the party. The ANC suffers from both.
Peter Marais, the Freedom Front Plus’ candidate for Western Cape premier, left, and party leader, Pieter Groenewald.
Brendan Magaar/African News Agency(ANA).
The FF+‘s constituency is overwhelmingly Afrikaner white Protestants. But, it appears to have made inroads among coloured conservatives.
Actor Peter Paul Muller as Bram Fischer in the film ‘An Act of Defiance’.
Supplied
South African lawyer Bram Fischer has been idealised in a post-1994 context. He was raised in a position of privilege, but he used it to defy the injustice of the society that raised him.
Local communities have taken advantage of campaign trail visits by leaders such as President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Epa/Kim Ludbrook
Community radio stations have thrown themselves into the political discussion with gusto.
Are South Africa’s biggest political parties offering anything new to inject much-needed life into the ailing education system?
flickr/ GovernmentZA
Here’s what researchers found when they assessed the election manifestos of South Africa’s three biggest political parties’ and what they say about education.
African National Congress supporters at the party’s manifesto launch.
Epa/Kim Ludbrook
South Africa has the world’s largest white minority living under black rule.Colour line tensions might remain a feature of the country’s political landscape.
Nelson Mandela and outgoing president Frederik Willem de Klerk.
Nelson Mandela’s dream of a great rainbow nation has been badly but not fatally undermined by corruption, violence and inequality.
South African politician Julius Malema often attacks journalists.
EPA-EFE/Brenton Geech
For democracy to work, the press has to be free.
South Africans go to the polls on 8 May, 2019.
EPA/Nic Bothma
The current crisis in British politics is significant for countries like South Africa where a change in electoral systems is needed.
A man challenges police during a protest in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg.
EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook
To claim that protests are being organised suggests sinister motives. But all protest is organised. So are cake sales and shopping expeditions.
South Africa urgently needs to get its economy moving again.
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Half of South Africa’s population remain chronically poor, and the quarter in-between struggle to stay out of reach of destitution.
Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa and of the ruling African National Congress.
EPA/Nick Bothma
South African voters are more likely to vote for the African National Congress led by Cyril Ramaphosa than they were when Jacob Zuma led the party.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, on the campaign trail.
EFE-EPA /Kim Ludbrook
There is a huge divide between what is important right now and what the election is likely to be about.
Villagers till their fields in South Africa’s North West Province. Access to land for small holder farmers remains unresolved.
Epa/Jon Hrusa
Land reform programme has done very little to improve access to land for black South Africans.
South Africans queue to cast their vote in a recent election. The country holds five-yearly national elections on 8 May.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
South Africa’s polls have been praised for adhering to international election best practice. But, they are not without problems.
Editor Max du Preez with one of the early editions of Vrye Weekblad.
@klyntji/Twitter
A progressive Afrikaans newspaper will be relaunched soon. But Vrye Weekblad can’t trade on its history alone. It will need to consider the challenges of the present and the future.
A man makes his mark in South Africa’s general elections on May 7, 2014.
EPA/Ihsaan Haffejee
Concern at the role of fake sites in influencing South African public opinion has been growing over time.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the UN headquarters, New York.
EPA-EFE/Angela Weiss
President Cyril Ramaphosa has committed South Africa to prioritising human rights and democracy. But, there’s little evidence of this.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa putting final touches to his state of the nation address in which he took a hard stance on corruption.
GCIS
Corruption has, over the past decade and a half, become one of South Africans’ biggest concerns.
The commission chaired by Justice Raymond Zondo has heard shocking testimony on the extent of corruption in government.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Corruption in South Africa became increasingly organised under former President Jacob Zuma.