Jacob Zuma at the launch of his new party, uMkhonto Wesizwe, in 2023.
Fani Mahuntsi/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The ANC tied itself in knots defending Zuma’s destructive bad behaviour in the past. Acting against him now would require it to own up to its sins.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses a meeting of the SACP in 2015.
GCIS: Flickr
The resort to armed struggle brought the Communist Party and the African National Congress much closer together during their time in exile.
South African Communist Party members have held key positions in the ANC-led governments.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
The Communist Party draws most of the members from South Africa’s mainly young, unemployed people, a group that keeps growing.
Black labourers extracting sludge.
on a mine near Johannesburg at the height of apartheid in the 1980s.
David Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images
The life story of Mandlenkosi Makhoba represents the losers in the new South Africa, showing how inequality is produced and reproduced generationally.
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa and the governing African National Congress.
EPA/Nic Bothma
The most that may be hoped for from the party’s annual statement is evidence of a president who is confident, clear and courageous.
Detail from a poster for the Codesa talks.
Judy Seidman
A retrospective exhibition displays the key works from the life and times of activist and artist Judy Seidman. She has used political posters as a galvanising force in the fight against injustice.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa (L) is congratulated by Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane after being elected president.
EPA/Nic Bothma
South Africa’s parliamentary system would make it difficult to achieve a fusion of parties.
An electronic toll gantry on a Johannesburg highway.
Shutterstock/Beate Wolte
Politicians oppose toll roads on Johannesburg’s highways, yet they are textbook example of progressive taxation that favours the poor.
Over 90% of South Africa’s electricity comes from coal-fired power stations.
Shutterstock
South Africa needs to wean itself off coal in a way that protects jobs and the environment.
South Africa’s Finance Minister Tito Mboweni (centre) arrives to deliver the mid-term budget statement to Parliament.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
South Africa needs to urgently step up its efforts to drive economic growth by harnassing the power of the state, as well as the markets.
Lesetja Kganyago, governor of South Africa’s central bank.
EPA-EFE/Pete Marovich
There’s an assumption that a change of ownership would automatically mean a change in the role the Bank plays
A victory at the polls might not be enough to give President Cyril Ramaphosa the leeway to fix South Africa’s economy.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
Indications are that even an ANC victory at the polls is unlikely to reverse the party’s decline in popular support.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addressing the 13th Cosatu conference.
Sowetan/Thulani Mbele
Electoral support by trade union federation Cosatu has been a huge asset for South Africa’s governing ANC.
Hugh Masekela performing in 2015.
Esa Alexander/The Times
The protest song “Stimela” remains as much a song about present and future aspirations, as it is of the past.
Shutterstock
A change in the ownership of the South African Reserve Bank from private shareholders to government shouldn’t impact the constitutional mandate of the central bank in any way.
South African President Jacob Zuma sings before his opening address at the 54th National Conference of the governing ANC.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Zuma’s last address to South Africa’s governing party, the ANC, as its president, betrayed his strange way of dealing with issues. He came across as delusional and self-indulgent.
There is a fallout between alliance partners the South African Communist Party and the governing ANC.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
The South African Communist Party’s decision to compete in an election against its alliance partner the ANC is a watershed moment for them, with important implications for the country.
Supporters of President Jacob Zuma in full cry outside the court during his 2006 rape trial.
EPA
South Africa has changed since Jacob Zuma’s 2006 rape trial. In recent years, a new and assertive feminist movement has emerged and attacks on the president have become common cause.
South Africa’s Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa and former finance minister Trevor Manuel were instrumental to the making of the country’s National Development Plan.
GCIS
South Africa’s five-year-old National Development Plan suffers from gross misinterpretation by different parties.
South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says his emails were hacked.
GCIS
Accusations against South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa appear to be an example of the tried-and-tested trick to discredit him and his political campaign to become the next president.