A closer look at the supposed successes of Brian Molefe at South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, shows that they are not what they have been made out to be. They are paper thin.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma (left), who is also the president of the governing ANC, and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
After two decades of political dominance, the electoral performance of the ANC is at its lowest since it became the governing party of South Africa in 1994. But is the party really unraveling?
Suppoters of outgoing South African public protector, Thuli Madonsela, outside her offices ahead of her last media briefing.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Far from the limelight, South Africa’s public protector has been instrumental in assisting individuals who grapple with unfair treatment from government departments and other public institutions.
South African President Jacob Zuma. He has survived a bid to have him removed and might strike back.
Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters
All eyes are on the next move from President Jacob Zuma after he survived a bid from senior ANC colleagues to remove him. The fallout is expected to be focused on the economic cluster of government.
South Africa faces a possible downgrade by credit rating agencies.
Shutterstock
Credit ratings have an impact on government, as well as ordinary people. This article was first published last year as South Africa faced a possible downgrade.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki at May Day celebrations in 2003. He failed to challenge a decision by the ANC to recall him in 2008.
EPA
Former South Africa’s President, Thab Mbeki, has made a remarkable intervention that condemns parliament’s failure to act against President Jacob Zuma. But he is eight years too late.
President Jacob Zuma is the common denominator in South Africa’s governance problems.
Nic Bothma/EPA
Defects in political governance, especially President Jacob Zuma’s failure to provide leadership, have induced a crisis of confidence in South Africa’s economy.
Can President Jacob Zuma continue to cling to power?
Mike Hutchings/Reuters
The former public protector’s report has stirred national consciousness. Jacob Zuma is swimming against the tide. Is he sinking, or might he still pull the trick of a proverbial cat with nine lives?
The criminal case against South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan, right, is an example of President Jacob Zuma’s abuse of state institutions.
GCIS
The use of the prosecuting authority and the police in ANC succession struggles has a long history. What’s different in the Zuma era is the symbiosis between elite police and the prosecution service.
South African President Jacob Zuma. What next?
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
South African President Jacob Zuma’s days of spinning out court cases indefinitely and at taxpayers’ expense may soon come to an end – possibly his worst news in a week of bad news.
South African President Jacob Zuma. Granting him amnesty would send the wrong signal.
Peter Foley/EPA
South Africa’s parastatals are in a dire state. Instead of being the mandated sites of development and profitability, they are costing the public purse billions and have been abused.
South Africa’s public protector, Thuli Madonsela, was rated among the world’s 100 most influential people by Time.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
The public protector needs to be “fit and proper”. That means he or she must be honest, reliable and have integrity.These qualities cannot be assessed through an interview and background checks only.
Protesters decry the decision by the South African Broadcasting Corporation not to air scenes of violent protest.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
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.
South Africa’s outgoing Public Protector Thuli Madonsela during a briefing with journalists in Johannesburg
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The increase in rioting ahead of municipal elections in South Africa, such as that in Pretoria, suggests that the country’s general election in 2019 could be more violent than previous elections.
President Jacob Zuma surprised South Africans by offering to pay back public money spent on his private home.
Reuters/Nic Bothma
Jacob Zuma has backtracked on two major decisions in under two months – first after he fired his finance minister; now he says he’ll pay back public money spent on his lavish Nkandla homestead.
South African President Jacob Zuma, right, listens to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ahead of Zuma’s second inauguration in Pretoria.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Tensions are probably inevitable in any constitutional democracy that empowers the courts to overrule the executive and legislature. But, judges are worried cabinet undermines the rule of law.