South African president Cyril Ramaphosa delivers a speech next to a statue of the late former president Nelson Mandela in Cape Town in 2020.
EPA-EFE/Ruvan Boshoff
The extent to which presidents adhere to the constitutional written code will have profound implications in relation to their use of executive power.
South Africa’s Pretoria News didn’t dress itself in glory with its false decuplets story. This picture was taken following Nelson Mandela’s death in 2013.
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Tighter controls are not the answer; the opportunity should be used to think differently about trust and journalism. It is critical to enable audiences to distinguish reliable, verified information.
One of the problems with traditional courts is that they marginalise women.
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Denying people the right to opt out of the traditional court system conflicts with the notion of customary law as a voluntary and consensual system of law.
The Canadian government’s employment of AI technology needs to be transparent.
(Shutterstock)
A responsible approach to the use of artificial intelligence by government requires transparency. The Canadian government’s use of AI in making immigration decisions warrants further investigation.
While mental health check-ins are important, there is more we can do.
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While democracy requires accountability from presidents, presidents may lose stature, not gain it, by holding a press conference.
Judge Raymond Zondo, chair of the commission investigating grand corruption in South Africa, has been too polite with former state president Zuma.
Deaan Vivier/Netwerk24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The Constitutional Court described Zuma’s lack of cooperation with the commission as “reprehensible”.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma says he won’t comply with a Constitutional Court order to appear before a commission on corruption.
EFE-EPA/Yeshiel Panchia
There are individual activists and political groupings who believe violent action is legitimate and use the circumstances to actively drive such behaviour.
Thuli Madonsela, professor of law and former Public Protector of South Africa.
EFE-EPA
The first of a series of fatal flaws in the idea is about where to draw the line.
WE Charity’s Marc Kielburger, left, and Craig Kielburger, right, appear as witnesses via videoconference at a House of Commons finance committee hearing in Ottawa in July 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
On paper, WE Charity could have been the best partner to implement the federal government’s student grant program. But the failure to be transparent eroded the public’s trust and led to its demise.
The Sunday Times, South Africa’s largest weekend newspaper, was used to spread disinformation.
Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images
Coronavirus has revealed the extreme plight of Bangladeshi factory workers.
Protesters in front of Boston Police Headquarters during a United Against Racist Police Terror Rally on June 7, 2020.
Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Across the United States, police are shielded from both public and departmental accountability by multiple layers of contractual and legislative protections.
At least 21 states have taken actions within the last four months to limit the liability of health care providers related to the coronavirus.
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Nearly half the states have reduced liability for health care providers at a time when nursing home regulation is declining and families can’t visit loved ones for fear of spreading the coronavirus.
Ghana is still finding ways of maximising its oil wealth.
Wikimedia Commons
Oversight over how Ghana’s oil wealth is spent has become more important than ever.
A health worker collecting sample test kits from a nurse during a community COVID-19 testing campaign in Lagos.
Photo by Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images
As Nigeria battles COVID-19, systemic corruption and a low level of accountability in the health sector may undermine efforts to halt the devastating effect of the virus.
The ANC, which has governed South Africa since 1994, has failed to deal decisively against corruption in its midst.
EFE-EPA/Yeshiel Panchia
The election of Port Elizabeth’s first black mayor in 1995 signalled that the democratic change that had started in 1994 was irreversible. But problems lay ahead.
The U.S .Capitol on February 20, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
Getty/Alex Edelman/AFP
Congress wanted an aide to President Trump to testify; Trump ordered him not to. Congress went to court over it, and the court told both sides to leave the courts out of it and negotiate a solution.
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
Research Director: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES) research division, and Coordinator of the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), Human Sciences Research Council