A central goal of Thabo Mbeki’s African Renaissance was the right of African people to determine their own future. But the country he governed struggled to embrace his pan-African vision.
As South Africa celebrates 22 years since the end of apartheid this month, a new survey by Afrobarometer suggests the country still has a long way to go in fulfilling the promises of freedom.
There are shortcomings in celebrity led campaigns against “conflict minerals” such as the one in which US actress Robin Wright is involved.
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The relationship between advocacy organisations based in Western capitals and their marketed constituency of marginalised and disadvantaged African groups is tenuous. What then, is the goal?
Joice Mujuru, leader of the new opposition Zimbabwe People First party.
EPA/Aaron Ufumeli
Opposition parties have emerged at different stages of Zimbabwe’s post-independence history but none have seriously threatened ZANU-PF dominance.
Heads of state at an African Union session in Addis Ababa. They have signed up to a plan that envisages strengthening institutions and governance.
EPA/Solan Kolli
If the governing ANC ignores the calls for Zuma’s resignation,it may undermine South Africa’s leadership on the continent. It creates the idea that he can undermine the constitution with impunity.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace. Mugabe has been in power since 1980.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
It is normal for resistance movements to adopt rough survival strategies and techniques while fighting an oppressive regime. Unfortunately that culture takes root and is permanently nurtured.
A Nigerien voter makes his feelings felt.
EPA/Arne Gillis
African elections and referendums are still a heady mixture of the graceful and the shameless.
Allegations that President Jacob Zuma’s friends, the Gupta family, corruptly dictate cabinet appointments have plunged South Africa into a political crisis.
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Lobbying political actors to achieve particular outcomes is an acceptable practice in a democracy. But state capture, as is allegedly happening in South Africa, denotes holding the state to ransom.
Posters depicting the ANC in happier times.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Democracy resulted in a sea change in the governing ANC. In the past, only highly committed idealists joined the party. Today’s splits and factions are about patronage and clientelism.
South African president Jacob Zuma in the country’s parliament, the one formal structure that could remove him from office.
EPA/Sumaya Hisham
Ironically, the only feasible way of removing President Zuma lies outside the prescribed formal structures of the constitutional processes – at the head office of the governing ANC.
If South Africans are to make the radical changes they must to become truly great, the new generation will have to find a way of understanding the country’s past in its profound complexity.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled that President Jacob Zuma failed in his duty to ‘uphold, defend and respect’ the Constitution.
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The Constitutional Court judgment in the opposition’s case against President Jacob Zuma represents the exercise of judicial authority and expertise at the highest level by international standards.
High-rise buildings amid shacks in Luanda. President Dos Santo has announced plans to retire amid growing unease among Angolans over deepening poverty despite a recent oil boom.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Angola’s Dos Santos is buying time. His promise to step down is an attempt to diffuse growing political tensions, as repression continues. He might relinquish his position, but not his power.
South African and ANC President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Lula led an unprecedented shift in the country’s foreign policy towards the global South. He also helped elevate Brazil to the status of a global player. But, six years on, disillusionment reigns.
AIDS activists protest outside South Africa’s parliament in Cape Town.
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Seasoned social rights activist Mark Heywood argues that the constitution provides South Africans with more rights and entitlements than they may be aware of.
Riot police detain a supporter of Forum for Democratic Change, Uganda’s leading opposition party, as they break up a campaign procession.
Reuters/James Akena
Uganda’s president has ruled for three decades – and the opposition is getting stagnant too.
Finance minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech has put the ANC government’s plan to fight poverty and reduce inequality back in the spotlight.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Finance minister Pravin Gordhan would need President Zuma’s undivided support to drive bold economic reforms. But, signs suggest that he does not have such support and is undermined by the president.
South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan had to tread carefully to please many competing interests in his budget.
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South Africa’s finance minister means well, especially in his bid to cut public sector expenditure. But his success requires strong leadership and strategic alignment across the entire public sector.
Yarik Turianskyi is Manager of the Governance and African Peer Review Mechanism Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs and guest lecturer in African Governance and Eastern European Politics, University of Pretoria