South African President Jacob Zuma, flanked by ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe (left) and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
A key question ahead of local government elections in South Africa is whether the African National Congress will retain control of seven of the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities.
Any judicial review of government’s spending choices must contribute to transformative constitutionalism.
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South Africa’s Constitution enjoins government to act “reasonably” in ensuring that basic socioeconomic rights are progressively realised. But the government has limited resources.
The closure of bank accounts of companies in South Africa associated with the Gupta family in the country has raised questions.
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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.
King Mswati III of Swaziland. His word is law, above all other laws in the tiny kingdom.
Reuters/Carlo Allegri
In the words of US President Obama: Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions. In this light, the South African president’s acceptance of a court ruling against him is a good thing.
Gwede Mantashe, general secretary of South Africa’s governing party the African National Congress, holds the key to Jacob Zuma’s future.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
For the time being at least, South African President Jacob Zuma is not ready to relinquish power. But perhaps sooner rather than later he may have to face the inevitable.
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.
Kenya’s Supreme Court judges file into the chamber during the opening of parliament.
Reuters/Noor Khamis
The electorate and those involved in public governance should focus more on how judges are appointed. This is because they need to make sure that individuals of the highest quality get the job.
Sixteen women die in Uganda every day during child birth in instances that could be avoided.
Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
The cases of two women who died in childbirth in two different parts of Uganda are being used in a Constitutional Court battle forcing the government to fulfill its healthcare obligations.
AIDS activists demand that the government of then-South African president Thabo Mbeki show a clear plan to fight the disease.
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One of the remarkable achievements of South Africa’s Constitutional Court has been its role in improving the quality of the internal democratic processes within the governing ANC.
President Jacob Zuma surprised South Africans by offering to pay back public money spent on his private home.
Reuters/Nic Bothma
Jacob Zuma has backtracked on two major decisions in under two months – first after he fired his finance minister; now he says he’ll pay back public money spent on his lavish Nkandla homestead.
South Africa is taking a tough stance against the practice of abducting and forcing young girls into marriage that’s still rife in some parts of the country.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The reasons for the phenomenon of child marriage are complex and include the fact that in customary law, marriageable age was never reckoned as an actual number but depended on puberty.
The ANC faces its toughest municipal elections test next year amid falling support.
Reuters/Mark Wessels
The annulment of the Tlokwe byelection results is a blow for the governing ANC. It has had a torrid 2015 and faces difficult local government elections early next year.
Students at Stellenbosch University call for Afrikaans to be scrapped as the institution’s main language.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Those who don’t want Stellenbosch University to make English the main language of instruction have invoked South Africa’s Constitution - but the assumptions underlying their arguments are false.
AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo is fighting a 12-year jail sentence for arson and other crimes.
Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
The South African government’s failure to arrest Omar al-Bashir flies in the face of the Constitutional Court’s decision in 2014 that South Africa has a duty to abide by its international obligations.