The African National Congress is steadily losing dominance.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Any ruling party in South Africa has found it hard to maintain internal coherence and unity over an extended time span amid wide national diversity.
Members of shack-dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo protest the alleged theft of COVID-19 funds in Durban, South Africa.
Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Extra-parliamentary politics forms part of a deeper defence that will give democracy more resilience in South Africa.
Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a global icon with local roots.
Photo by Jekesai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images
The former secretary-general of the Commonwealth represents the true essence of a public intellectual and leader; his sense of duty defines his legacy.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela on his 91st birthday in 2009.
Media24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The death of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2021 has triggered renewed frustrations over the elusiveness of a “new” South Africa.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa delivering the 2022 state of the nation address.
GCIS/Flickr
Reviving the capacity of the state is also crucial to shoring up support for democracy in the long term.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa will need political courage to introduce basic income support.
Photo by Peter Nicholls-WPA Pool/Getty Images
Basic income support is not a question of government “being generous”. The money will be taken from employed citizens and the affluent.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses a meeting of the SACP in 2015.
GCIS: Flickr
The resort to armed struggle brought the Communist Party and the African National Congress much closer together during their time in exile.
South Africa’s President and African National Congress (ANC) party President Cyril Ramaphosa cuts the cake during the ANC’s 110th anniversary celebrations.
(Photo by Phill Magakoe /AFP via Getty Images)
Ramaphosa currently has no known rivals with widespread support within the African National Congress.
South African and African National Congress party’s President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks during the ANC’s 110th anniversary celebrations.
Photo by Phill Magakoe /AFP via Getty Images
South Africans are led by a dithering president at the helm of an inept political party which has already passed its sell by date.
Lindiwe Mabuza (right) with President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2018.
Katlholo Maifadi/GCIS
For her, art was a weapon in the struggle and a tool for education. She used every opportunity to build movements and to archive experiences in writing.
Abstention in the 2021 local government election was largely driven by a combination of individual and administrative barriers.
Guillem Sartorio/AFP via Getty Images
The South African electorate is becoming less tied to race and identity-based voting but are increasingly making a wider evaluation of the performance of political incumbents.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa (L) is congratulated by leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party Mangosuthu Buthelezi (R) after being elected president of South Africa during the swearing in of new members of the National Assembly.
Nic Bothma
The failure of the 2021 post-election deal is a missed opportunity for the African National Congress and Inkatha to work together.
Mxolisi Kaunda mayor of eThekwini. If parties or individuals succeed in the politics and practicalities of governing a metro, the rewards are considerable.
Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Metros may be a graveyard for political ambition. But if parties or individuals succeed, the rewards are considerable.
Charlotte Mmakgoko Mannya- Maxeke has been immortalised in several works.
Wikimedia Commons
Thanks to the public events and the scholarly engagement with her life and work, Charlotte Maxeke has become one of the most visible South African women from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Supporters of main opposition Democratic Alliance wave the national flag ahead of the 2021 local elections.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
The 2021 local government elections signals widespread disillusionment with representative democracy that only a sea change in service delivery can fix.
Umkhonto we Sizwe army veterans stand to attention during the 75th birthday celebrations of the governing ANC in 2017.
EFE-EPA/Cornell Turiki
The dismantling of the liberation armies and that of the apartheid state was managed badly. It left in its wake thousands of angry veterans who felt betrayed.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the campaign trail.
Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images
Turnout was low. But not equally so across the board. Patterns show it was not a statement by all voters – it was a message from ANC supporters.
The Economic Freedom Fighters’s campaign emphasises national issues.
EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma
The 2021 election will define for citizens important aspects of South Africa’s political future. What is the governing ANC’s future, and what was the impact of President Ramaphosa on this election?
EFE-EPA/Stringer
The rise in political parties and the explosion in the number of independents means that it’s no longer simply a race among the three major parties.
Young South Africans are bearing the brunt of the country’s high joblessness numbers.
Anders Pettersson via Getty Images
South Africa’s youth unemployment tax incentive is effectively a subsidy to the profits of companies.