The skylines of Alexandra township and Sandton City. Decolonising education involves helping students understand how different experiences shape our world.
Reuters/Kim Ludbrook
The Open Government Partnership promotes transparency, public accountability and civic participation in government to combat corruption. It is hoped South Africa will help it grow in Africa.
Miners pray during the one-year anniversary commemoration of the killings of 34 striking miners by police outside Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The reporting of the Marikana massacre was characterised by embedded journalism, sensationalism and polarisation of views. The media became a loudspeaker for powerful political and economic interests.
Scientific evidence shows overwhelmingly that people across the world are genetic refugees from Africa.
Shutterstock
Despite science refuting the existence of different human races, people have used “race” throughout history to divide and denigrate certain people while promoting their claims of superiority.
Most student protests in South Africa during 2015 have been peaceful and organised, but there have been moments of violent confrontation.
REUTERS/Sydney Seshibedi
Two narratives have emerged from student protests in South Africa: reform on the one hand - and revolution on the other. Which narrative will triumph?
President Jacob Zuma took over as leader of the ANC with a promise to reconnect the party with the people. His legacy suggests otherwise.
Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
Judged by general citizen sentiment expressed at the grassroots, Jacob Zuma has failed to bring the ANC closer to the people. Research shows substantial alienation between the ANC and communities.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma being welcomed on his arrival in Khartoum by Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir earlier this year.
Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
South Africa’s withdrawal from the ICC could have mere symbolic value. The country will continue to have obligations to binding decisions taken by the UN Security Council – including those pertaining to the court.
South African rugby coach Heyneke Meyer sings the national anthem at the World Cup.
Reuters / Eddie Keogh
South Africa’s rugby administrators are facing increased criticism for their failure to shed its white image. The tone of the debate is different this time, amid growing protests against inequality.
It has been an exciting month for Africa, not least for the highly controversial elections in Tanzania, where the annulment of the entire vote in Zanzibar has played an important role in extending the…
A racially segregated train station entrance during apartheid.
Apartheid Museum
The infamous Muldergate scandal of the 1970s was the exemplar case of apartheid’s “unorthodox diplomacy” of buying influence around the world.
Journalists Thami Mazwai, left, and Jon Qwelane before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s special hearing on the media. They accused the white-owned press of colluding with apartheid.
Reuters
South Africa’s homicide rates have declined consistently since democracy, but remain among the highest in the world. They are about four times the global average at more than 30 per 100,000 people.
South Africa is far from being the non-racial, classless society envisaged by 1970s activists.
Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi
The egalitarian society envisioned by political activists and thinkers Rick Turner and Steve Biko has not been realised. But, they continue to inspire critiques of post-apartheid South Africa.
To mark the African National Congress’ policy review conference, we bring you a selection of previously published articles about the state of South Africa’s governing party and the country.
Supporters of the Congress of South African Trade Unions march in the streets of Johannesburg. Economic freedom has eluded the majority of South Africans.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Economic transformation of unequal societies in a democratising context is difficult. This requires a creative mix of policy options underpinned by a commitment to social justice.
Women wait in line to fill buckets from a communal clean tap in Masiphumelele, Cape Town, South Africa. The country has extremely high levels of inequality.
Nic Bothma/Reuters
Thomas Piketty’s visit reminds us of the need to reconsider South African inequality-fibbery. His inequality critique is vital, but only if it can withstand the neoliberal embrace.
The Global South is engineering new anti-poverty strategies, leaving traditional left analysts in a quandry.
Reuters/Nacho Doce
Could the surge of worker and popular resistance worldwide provide the global trade union movement with an opportunity to take the lead in developing a broad coalition of social forces?
Students protest at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University demanding the right to be taught in English rather than Afrikaans, which they identify with apartheid.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
The university should be the bastion of the right to free expression in the promotion of democracy, and has a moral and ethical obligation to provide spaces for fierce debate and critical engagement.
The Economic Freedom Fighters’ entry into parliament is the most dramatic example of political realignment in South Africa.
Reuters/Skyler Reid
The Marikana massacre of 2012 triggered strikes across South Africa and political realignment. But could this, and the formation of the United Front to rival the ANC, have long-term significance?
Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State