Meeting the challenges from the opposition will strengthen the ANC’s dominance. How well its new leadership copes will become clearer over the next few months.
South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, poses a danger to democracy by continuiing to blur the lines between the state and the party.
The politicians who removed Zuma are likely to be running the government for the next five years. Current events were their first test and offered a hint of how the country may be governed.
South Africa, following its peaceful transition, occupied the moral high ground and could influence the agenda of intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations. Not anymore.
President Jacob Zuma shouldn’t be allowed to detract from the momentum that Cyril Ramaphosa, the new president of the ruling ANC, has started to build.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma’s resistance to vacate the top job may be a blessing in disguise as it will stress test the country’s political systems.
Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State