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.
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.
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.
Lesetja Kganyago, governor of South Africa’s central bank.
EPA-EFE/Pete Marovich
There’s an assumption that a change of ownership would automatically mean a change in the role the Bank plays
A victory at the polls might not be enough to give President Cyril Ramaphosa the leeway to fix South Africa’s economy.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
Indications are that even an ANC victory at the polls is unlikely to reverse the party’s decline in popular support.
Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighter are using President Cyril Ramaphosa’s anti-corruption campaign against him.
EPA-EFE/Kevin Sutherland
The Economic Freedom Fighters’ strategy of painting President Ramaphosa and his allies as corrupt is unlikely to succeed.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa faces the daunting task of fighting corruption and winning votes for his party.
GCIS
Polls indicate that South Africans are unlikely to totally abandon the African National Congress.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is now more popular than his governing party, the ANC.
EFE-EPA/Stringer
The ANC has lost so much support among its traditional voters it’s now forced to look beyond them to retain power.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
Troubles in South Africa’s coalition-led local governments are affecting accountability, governance stability and service delivery.
A protester in Nairobi, Kenya, displays a poster calling for Bobi Wine’s release.
Daniel Irungu/EPA
Bobi Wine entered the political arena with a relatively consistent background of politically critical music.
South Africa’s 2016 municipal elections. A new bill aims to make party funding transparent.
Cornell Tukiri/EPA
Legislation to control the private funding of political parties in South Africa is long overdue.
Former South African President Jacob Zuma. Never again should one man wield so much power.
GCIS
Zuma will go down in history as South Africa’s most corrupt head of government since Cecil Rhodes was prime minister of the Cape Colony.
The scene of the Marikana massacre in South Africa that some have named the “Hill of Horror”.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Five years on, no-one has been held to account for the Marikana massacre where 34 miners were shot dead by members of the South African Police Service in a single day.
Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba, leads a campaign to clean up the city streets.
The Star/Itumeleng English
Are different ways of governing emerging from South Africa’s cities governed by opposition coalitions?
Demonstrators protest outside South Africa’s Parliament in Cape Town against President Jacob Zuma’s firing of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Are those ANC members critical of Zuma willing to stand up and be counted? Will Pravin Gordhan, popular hero of the hour, provide one further great service to the nation?
South Africans queue to vote in the 2016 municipal elections. The governing ANC is accused of wanting to generate ‘fake news’ to influence voters.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
The planting of messages and countering narratives in the media is not new. It’s part and parcel of contemporary politics especially during elections. The internet simply makes an old problem worse.
Demonstrators protest against censorship by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
It’s vital that the problems at the South African Broadcasting Corporation be fixed in the public interest and for democracy, given its wide media reach in the country.
Johannesburg skyline: the challenge is to create a city that is liveable, safe and resource efficient.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Populations revolt when lives are improving but not fast enough to meet their rising expectations.
EFF leaders Godrich Gardee, left, Julius Malema and Floyd Shivamvu brief journalists in Alexandra, near Johannesburg.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The EFF is sending a strong message to South Africans that it wants to be known as the only political home for radical change.
President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and former anti-apartheid activist Sophie de Bruyn at the unveiling of a monument to the 1956 women’s march.
GCIS
South Africa’s past tells us that, under certain conditions, women mobilise in ways that produce significant political results. But the country’s present shows how easily these gains can evaporate.