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Articles sur South African politics

Affichage de 281 à 300 de 328 articles

Most student protests in South Africa during 2015 have been peaceful and organised, but there have been moments of violent confrontation. REUTERS/Sydney Seshibedi

Student protests in South Africa have pitted reform against revolution

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

Jacob Zuma likes to be cast as a man of the people – but is he?

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

Leaving the ICC won’t absolve South Africa of its legal obligations

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.
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

Media feel pressure as divisions widen on the role of journalists in South Africa

South Africa seems more divided than ever on the media, as the governing ANC revives plans for a dreaded tribunal many fear would muzzle the press.
A man walks among crosses outside Pretoria, South Africa, representing farmers killed in violent attacks. Reuters/Juda Ngwenya

Illegal guns fuel violent crime, wreak deadly havoc in South Africa

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

How the failed ideals of 1970s activists haunt post-apartheid South Africa

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.
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

South Africa: why economic freedom is proving to be the ANC’s undoing

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

Why inequality will not be fixed with Pikettian posturing and distorted data

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

The study of inequality has been mainstreamed – what now for the left?

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

Universities need to manage hate speech, not stifle freedom of expression

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

Why South Africa is primed for fundamental political realignment

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?
Demand for housing in South Africa continues to outstrip supply despite the government having made more than three million houses to poor households. Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

Waiting for the state: politics of public housing in South Africa

The dismally slow provision of housing in South Africa is such that more than 2.2 million households live in 2700 informal settlements. Waiting is the norm and can take years, even decades.
Seabelo Senatla of South Africa scores a try against New Zealand during the gold medal match of the Rugby Sevens at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Reuters/Russell Cheyne

What South Africa will be sacrificing by hosting the Commonwealth Games

By investing in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, South Africa sacrifices investment in pressing societal needs. Instead, the country should be mobilised around the national goal of fixing schooling.
Leaders at the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2013. Malta will host the next one in November 2015. Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Why the Commonwealth endures despite being written off by the left and the right

The Commonwealth is politically fraught, with widely divergent members. But, instead of unravelling as some critics wish, it has instead inspired copycats and appears set to grow and endure.
Black students at University of Stellenbosch protest against the institutions’s language policy they say discriminates against them by favouring Afrikaans. Times Media/Adrian de Kock

Why Biko’s Black Consciousness philosophy resonates with youth today

Black youth are grappling with the question of the meaning of freedom in post-apartheid South Africa. They seek an antidote to their reality wherein blackness continues to be mocked and marginalised.

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