After tiptoeing around the idea of contesting state power South Africa’s Communist Party is looking to strengthen its position now that the ANC is no longer the dominant force it used to be.
A soldier with the 9th South African Infantry Battalion during a biennial training exercise with the US military in the Eastern Cape.
US Army/ Taryn Hagerman
One of the problems bedevilling South Africa's army is being compelled to be everything to everybody. Its strategic direction is compromised by generals who pander to the whims of politicians.
South African President Jacob Zuma closing the governing ANC’s policy conference.
EPA/Stringer
A combination of politicking ahead of the ANC policy conference, plus the machinations just before it met meant heightened tensions between rival factions.
Cape Town reggae artist, Teba Shumba.
Tuomas Järvenpää
Reggae in South Africa has lost its visibility and prominence inside the country after apartheid. But local artists have built up extensive international links.
Many are questioning South Africa’s constitutional democracy amid high poverty and unemployment.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
President Jacob Zuma has been brought to book repeatedly by South Africa's courts. He also faces a rising tide of discontent. One way or another, he seems to be running out of political lives.
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has lit a grass fire in South Africa’s financial circles.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
South Africa's Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane has touched on two highly contentious issues: the unresolved bailout for a local bank three decades ago. And the role of the country's Reserve Bank.
Demonstrators march against corruption in South Africa.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
The misfortunes experienced by Brian Molefe, the CEO of South Africa's power utility Eskom, shows that the battle for the country's public purse is not a one way bet.
A protest in support of Raymond Suttner released from detention in 1988 by apartheid authorities.
Robert Botha/Times Media Group
In the new introduction to his prison memoir South African anti-apartheid stalwart Raymond Suttner uses the word 'betrayal' to explain his break from the ANC.
ANC leaders greet party supporters at a recent rally.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The internal processes of South Africa's ruling ANC for electing the president is distorted by money, patronage, factionalism and vote-rigging. It negates the democratic legitimacy the party claims.
Rebel UNITA troops walk through a field twenty miles from the front line at Munhango, Angola April 29, 1986.
Reuters/Wendy Schwegmann
For a military battle whose outcome is still hotly contested 30 years later, the impact was so remarkably clear -- independence for Namibia, peace for Angola and the death knell for apartheid.
South Africa's Constitutional Court has the difficult task of deciding whether MPs can have the protection of a secret ballot when voting whether to fire President Zuma or not.
South African President Jacob Zuma is appealing a High Court ruling that he give reasons for his controversial cabinet reshuffle.
GCIS
President Jacob Zuma's grounds for appeal are surreal. He invokes the meaning of a rule set by the apartheid context he ferociously fought against, to justify his executive action in a democracy.
Protests in South Africa are about more than just service delivery of basic services such as water and electricity. They reflect a wider crisis about the failure to build a more equitable society.
White South Africans own most companies and shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo.
