The main criticism leveled at the body that oversees the work of South Africa’s elite police unit, the Hawks, is that it lacks the power to initiate investigations, making it ineffective.
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South Africa’s watershed local elections have resulted in upsets for the ANC in key metropoles. But will the new, minority coalition regimes live up to their mandate of providing basic services?
There were high hopes that the SABC would become a true public broadcaster after the end of apartheid when it was used ruthlessly as a propaganda machine. But those hopes have since been dashed.
Zambia’s Edgar Lungu shouldn’t consider his presidential victory to mean business as usual in the management of the economy; nor an opportunity to waste and plunder.
Racial violence has its parallels in other forms of violence in India. The prejudice runs across multiple channels from caste, region, religion to gender.
The African Union has identified youth as critical for development. But, a new survey reveals a wide gap between these aspirations and the reality of youth public engagement on the continent.
The EFF is sending a strong message to South Africans that it wants to be known as the only political home for radical change.
Achieving greater freedom and equality for all identity groups is African democrats’ primary goal. By contrast, American democrats have traditionally been preoccupied with individual rights.
In many ways the office of the Public Protector has become the barometer of the state of South Africa’s constitutional democracy.
The competition between the two authoritarian regimes has become a fact that, given the regional context, is here to last. It justifies repression and indefinitely postpones democratic expression.
Many municipalities in the South Africa don’t function properly because of poor management and administrative capacity. They don’t have enough appropriately qualified and experienced staff.
For the first time, all Oromo branches have come together to fight for their national self-determination and democracy
The ghost of ‘Khwezi’ – the woman who accused Jacob Zuma of rape in 2006 – continues to haunt him, just as the spectre of rape continues to haunt South Africa.
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.
Qunta advocates a reparations fund to accelerate corrective policies, that schools be freed from colonial indoctrination and that African culture should be mainstreamed, especially African languages.
Various commentators have wrongly over the last 22 years said that black people voted blindly for ANC governments. There’s no better example why the academy needs a dramatic post-colonial overhaul.
As military organisations become less oriented towards violence, the traditional, aggressive, warrior-like culture of the military has to be balanced with new task requirements.
As Zambia prepares to go to the polls again the entire party system is in flux, electoral violence has been worryingly frequent and the country’s democratic credentials are increasingly in doubt
Mega development projects can have a positive impact. But there are risks. Between 2004 and 2013, some 3.4 million people were ‘physically and economically displaced’ by World Bank projects alone.
For more than 20 years the ANC’s electoral support has appeared unyielding to the obvious weaknesses of its performance in government. To fall below 60% is psychologically significant for the party.
The marked increase in the number of Nigerian pastoralists fleeing Boko Haram terror in northeastern Nigeria last year reflects a trend that started three years ago.
The new forms of protest in Zimbabwe raise the possibility that the country’s long-simmering crisis may have reached boiling point. The time could indeed be ripe for a unique form of politics.
The first Renaissance struggled with the same doubts and uncertainties and blinding possibilities that we face today. Any gains we make will have to be achieved amid relentless shocks.
The ANC has faced an inexorable, gradual decline in support since 2004. There is no evidence that it has been able to reverse this trend.
South Africans are expressing disillusionment with the African National Congress. But dissatisfaction with the ruling party does not automatically translate into support for other parties.