South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s apology for his role in the 2012 Marikana massacre has no credibility, as there wasn’t full disclosure.
Delegates at the launch of the South African Federation of Trade Unions.
The Star/Nokuthula Mbatha
South Africa’s newest trade union federation, Saftu, comes at a time of declining political influence by unions, compared to during the struggle against apartheid. They are also seen as elitist.
The face and character of protests in South Africa seems to be changing.
Reuters/Marius Bosch
Democracy in South Africa is meaningless if it doesn’t improve the lives of the people. To do this, the governing ANC must be led by conscientious, competent and interested leaders.
ANC military veterans guard the party’s headquarters.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
The militant talk and antics by the ANC’s ex-soldiers may seem like theatrics, but they are a chilling reminder of how Zimbabwe used armed militia to crash opponents and democracy.
Protesters call for the firing of South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
The notion of South African exceptionalism runs deep. Many people in the country believe that in some cases they are superior to the rest of the continent.
Demonstrators protest outside South Africa’s Parliament in Cape Town against President Jacob Zuma’s firing of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Are those ANC members critical of Zuma willing to stand up and be counted? Will Pravin Gordhan, popular hero of the hour, provide one further great service to the nation?
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has shafted and shifted 20 cabinet posts.
Aaron Ufumeli/EPA
The focus will now be on how the social democratic and left-leaning members of South Africa’s cabinet – the “constitutionalists” – will respond to the reshuffle.
Premier of the Western Cape Helen Zille.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Opposition parties in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to prove themselves worthy to skeptical voters who, unlike in Western competitive systems, don’t trust them over former liberation movements.
President Jacob Zuma during his 2017 state of the nation address to a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.
Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
President Zuma’s speech is historically meaningless in that it is not a milestone of any professed historical mission.
Security officials remove members of the Economic Freedom Fighters during South African President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address.
Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
The ANC should draw the lesson that South Africans are unlikely to tolerate the ongoing descent of their politics into the gutter without strident resistance - in the streets, if necessary.
Qedani Mahlangu resigned as the local government minister for health in Gauteng following the deaths of 94 mentally ill patients.
South African Tourism
Mahlangu’s resignation over the deaths of mental patients sets her apart from her colleagues in government. But, it does not portend a new trend in political accountability for the governing ANC.
South Africans queue to vote in the 2016 municipal elections. The governing ANC is accused of wanting to generate ‘fake news’ to influence voters.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
The planting of messages and countering narratives in the media is not new. It’s part and parcel of contemporary politics especially during elections. The internet simply makes an old problem worse.
Demonstrators protest against censorship by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
It’s vital that the problems at the South African Broadcasting Corporation be fixed in the public interest and for democracy, given its wide media reach in the country.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has set her sights on becoming the president of South Africa.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
Dlamini-Zuma is an ambiguous, ambitious figure, an operator and bureaucrat with good credentials. But, she offers nothing new and can’t shake off claims that she’s just a shoe-in for her ex-husband.
The problem for Jacob Zuma’s political theology is that far too many members of South Africa’s ruling ANC have been experiencing a dramatic loss of faith in a party they see as no longer righteous.
A mural depicting populist dictators painted onto remnants of the Berlin Wall in Berlin in 2014.
Henning Melber
The legitimacy and credibility of those in power has been eroded by bad governance, patronage and the obsession to claim an exclusive agency representing the people.