South Africa’s civil service has failed to implement policies to eradicate poverty, inequality and unemployment.
A protest in Johannesburg against the lack of service delivery or basic necessities such as access to water and electricity.
Photo by Marco Longari / AFP via Getty images
The country is still a very different political space. It’s a noisy democracy with a free media, lots of dissenting voices, and insulting the government doesn’t carry any overt sanction.
Looters rampage through a shopping centre in the city of Durban during lawlessness triggered by the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma.
EFE-EPA/Stringer
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.
Protesters gather in the middle of the road during a demonstration in Johannesburg.
Photo by Thabo Jaiyesimi/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The problem in municipalities is not that the wrong people are being chosen. It is that the wrong people are doing the choosing – not only of candidates but of what they do if elected.
South African Police Service march to disperse students blocking traffic in Johannesburg, in March.
Michele Spatari / AFP via Getty Images
South Africans deserve a fuller picture of the extent of police brutality, and the level of accountability, especially when people die at the hands of police.
Failures by municipalities to do their work are forcing many residents to take matters into their own hands.
EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma
Delivery riders are paying the ultimate price for the fact that our cities, their infrastructure and the rules governing them make cycling much more dangerous than it should be.
The post-apartheid system of participatory democracy is generally considered to have failed.
EPA-EFE/Yeshiel Panchia
A readable and important new book on the struggle for justice in South Africa’s Oukasie township does not go far enough to question the feasibility of grassroots resistance.
South Africans who receive welfare grants vote for the governing African National Congress more than any other party.
EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook
The survey findings show that people who had taken part in protests over the last five years were more likely to vote for opposition parties.
A Sudanese protester waves the Sudanese and Algerian flags. Peaceful protestors in both countries eventually toppled their long term presidents.
EPA-EFE/Amel Pain
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