The Chief Justice needs to have a single-minded and unyielding commitment to constitutional democracy and constitutional values, including social justice.
South Africa’s controversial new Speaker of Parliament, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
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The ANC’s choice of parliamentary Speaker reflects poorly on the party leadership and contrasts starkly with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s commitment to uncorrupt governance.
Residents clean up the streets and local businesses after looting incidents in Alexandra, Johannesburg.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Much of the commentary on the July riots, which cost over 300 lives and billions of rands in damage to the economy, has neglected the long history of violent protests in the country.
Trucks and business were looted and burnt during recent riots in South Africa.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
The violence wreaked its damage because South Africa’s journey to democracy remains incomplete. It sends a sharp message that the country must look its past far more squarely in the eye.
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
South Africa's recent violence is a cause for concern but there are opportunities to build a stronger nation.
Protestors burnt trucks on the main road between the city port Durban in KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa’s industrial heartland.
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The glaring failure by authorities to secure an area notorious for attacks on trucks prompts questions about, at best, utter ineptitude, or at worst, complicity.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court in session in 2018.
Alaister Russell/Sowetan/Gallo Images/Getty Images
An uncomfortable reality is that looting is perceived by the looters to be socially acceptable and is often encouraged and endorsed within social and community networks.
South African soldiers interrogate a pedestrian outside a mall in Soweto.
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After 1994 efforts were made to embed democracy. The focus was on policy and institution-building. What was missing was ensuring all South Africans were on board.
Looters grab items from a vandalised mall in South Africa.
Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
South Africa can’t possibly remain the same country in the aftermath of this mayhem. There are just too many storms ahead to simply continue unchanged.
Private armed security officers take a position near a burning barricade during a joint operation with South African Police Service officers in Jeppestown, Johannesburg.
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Corruption thrives in a destabilised state with weak institutions. South Africa cannot be allowed back to that space because there will be no turning back.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma.
(Photo by Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images
Jacob Zuma ran out of ideas to defend himself. Martyrdom is almost impossible without a cause, and he has none.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma stands in the dock at a separate trial at the Pietermaritzburg High Court in May.
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South Africa has many problems. But, as Jacob Zuma has found out, the strength of its rule of law and the independence of its judiciary should not be underestimated.
Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa as well as of the ruling party, the African National Congress.
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Rob Davies is critical of economic policy, starting with the Mandela administration. He reserves particular criticism for its macroeconomic policy framework introduced in 1996.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa at the Zondo Commission into state capture.
GCIS
The judicial process in South Africa is hugely contested. This places an exaggerated burden on the courts to act with maximum independence and impartiality.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign against corruption is being undermined from within the governing ANC.
EFE-EPA/Yeshiel Panchia
Ramaphosa’s rise to power in 2018 offered South Africans hope that he would end corruption. Indeed, he made promises to do so. But he has met with resistance, especially within the ANC.