South Africa’s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa (L) and President Jacob Zuma. Ramaphosa has described the ANC government as being at war with itself.
EPA/Mike Hutchings
South Africa has reached a critical point. If patronage politicians win the battle within the ruling ANC and complete the capture of the state, the country will slip from stagnation into the abyss.
Des van Rooyen, cooperative governance minister and new treasurer-general of the MK Military Veterans Association.
eNCA.com
MK, the army of the then banned ANC, electrified millions of oppressed people to rise against the apartheid regime. Today, its veterans are being used in factional battles within the ruling party.
The Democratic Alliance’s Herman Mashaba celebrates victory as Johannesburg’s new mayor after the ANC’s defeat.
The Star/Boxer Ngwenya
South Africa’s watershed local elections have resulted in upsets for the ANC in key metropoles. But will the new, minority coalition regimes live up to their mandate of providing basic services?
Kenyan youth chant in celebration before the arrival of Pope Francis at the Kasarani stadium in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
The African Union has identified youth as critical for development. But, a new survey reveals a wide gap between these aspirations and the reality of youth public engagement on the continent.
Election officials scan voters’ identity documents during South Africa’s local government elections in Umlazi, Durban.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
Many municipalities in the South Africa don’t function properly because of poor management and administrative capacity. They don’t have enough appropriately qualified and experienced staff.
South African President Jacob Zuma reacts during the official announcement of the municipal election results in Pretoria.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Various commentators have wrongly over the last 22 years said that black people voted blindly for ANC governments. There’s no better example why the academy needs a dramatic post-colonial overhaul.
South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance party leader Mmusi Maimane.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Patronage and clientelism is slipping away from the ANC and accruing to those who pledge their political futures to the Democratic Alliance. It will have to guard against incumbency arrogance.
Supporters of South Africa’s governing ANC during President Jacob Zuma’s election campaign in Pretoria.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
For more than 20 years the ANC’s electoral support has appeared unyielding to the obvious weaknesses of its performance in government. To fall below 60% is psychologically significant for the party.
A pastoralist refugee in Cameroon.
Mouadjamou Ahmadou
The marked increase in the number of Nigerian pastoralists fleeing Boko Haram terror in northeastern Nigeria last year reflects a trend that started three years ago.
Supporters of South Africa’s governing ANC with a mock coffin of the opposition EFF at the ANC’s Siyanqoba rally ahead of local elections.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The ANC’s waning urban vote and growing support rural is not a political trend unique to South Africa. Many of Africa’s liberation-movements-cum-governing-parties now depend on rural support for political longevity.
Voters wait their turn outside a polling station at Nkonjeni village in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The country is gearing up for local elections.
Reuters/Radu Sigheti
The opposition Democratic Alliance is hopeful that the African National Congress will fail to win a majority in three metros. This will open the door for it to rule in coalition with smaller parties.
Supporters of South Africa’s governing ANC during campaigning for upcoming local election.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The Tripartite Alliance in South Africa has previously provided the governing African National Congress with diverse support, securing it victory at the polls. It is now riven with dissension.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, woos voters in hotly-contested Nelson Mandela Bay.
Supplied by the DA
In previous elections speculation in South Africa focused on the likely size of the ruling ANC’s majority. This time the question on people’s minds is: will the ANC win or lose Nelson Mandela Bay?
A new book lays bare England’s treachery and connivance in denying black South Africans the vote.
Britain’s acquiescence in the face of Afrikaner intransigence set the precedent for the progressive disenfranchisement of nonwhite South Africans and laid down the foundation for apartheid.
The South Sudanese capital, Juba, has seen a serious uptick in violence.
EPA/Phillip Dhil
Unscrupulous politicians are adept at using regressive story lines that feed insecurities. That could be dangerous ahead of South Africa’s hotly-contested municipal elections.
The strongest resistance to the United Nations resolution to promote LGBTI rights came from Muslim and African states. Many of these countries still criminalise same-sex relationships.
Tshwane Executive Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa, surrounded by school pupils and officials, samples the metropole’s free internet service.
Pretoria News/Masi Losi
That South Africa has voted against rights enshrined in its globally celebrated, progressive constitution suggests a troubling indifference to its human rights commitments.
More than 10,000 people have fled the conflict in Mozambique to take refuge in Malawi.
Justin Pearce
Mozambican civilians are again bearing the consequences of war between the government and opposition party Renamo. How has Renamo mobilised popular support for a new uprising?
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