The spread of misinformation in many pandemics, including the smallpox and 1918 influenza outbreaks, have undermined efforts to contain infections and prevent deaths.
Thandi Modise, South Africa’s defence minister.
Michal Fludra/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Every South African who cares about the future of the country will agree with former president Mbeki that, to avert disaster, something must be done urgently about its deep socio-economic problems.
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.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2017.
EFE-EPA/Kevin Sutherland
Mbeki has successfully transitioned from being an old horse of South Africa’s governing ANC to a highly venerated and in-demand African elder statesman.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses an African Union summit in Addis Ababa via video in February 2022.
Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images
The informal sector in Zimbabwe is massive. Finding ways to connect it to the formal sector is vital.
In the nineteenth century, improved breeds and new agricultural technology underpinned exports of ostrich feathers from South Africa.
powerofforever/iStock/Getty Images Plus
This book is a history of individuals, ideas and institutions that were at the fulcrum of important scientific developments.
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 posturing is bound to continue. But at the age of 78 Jacob Zuma’s long day in the sun is over.
Former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki share a light moment at a meeting of the G8 and developing nations in Tokyo in 2000.
EFE-EPA/Michel Euler
Former presidents Obasanjo and Mbeki have arguably made the most important contribution to Africa in the 21st Century by promoting peace, democracy, regional integration and pan-Africanism.
Apartheid-era Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee, Thabo and Zanele Mbeki, Nelson Mandela and his daughter Zenani, FW and Marike de Klerk.
GettyImages
The book shows that the claim made by some analysts that it was the fall of communism that prompted moves towards negotiations to end apartheid is off the mark.
Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s freedom struggle icon and first black president, continues to be revered around the world.
Mandela left at the right time in 1999, when the country still seemed in a healthy state, after which he consolidated his international reputation.
Persistent rampant povery has been blamed on the compromises made by the African National Congress during negotiations to end apartheid.
EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma
The book is set to heighten the debate about the future of the party, whose dominance has been in decline since 2009.
The Shaik brothers Moe, Schabir and Chippy after Schabir was found guilty of fraud and corruption and sentenced to 15 years.
.Beeld/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Moe Shaik fancies himself as an analyst who can read people well. And yet, he has a rather large blind spot for his leaders – until they fall out with him.
President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the press briefing room at the White House on March 15, 2020.
Getty/Tasos Katopodis
Usually when a leader handles a crisis poorly, it’s politically costly. But President Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis is not likely to hurt him, says an expert on health crises.
South African civil society and private citizens march in protest against xenophobic violence in Johannesburg.
EPA-EFE/Yeshiel Panchia
It remains to be seen how much longer the ‘old men syndrome’ will persist in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa, despite growing frustration among the politically powerless.