South African legislators need to be vigilant against possible abuses of surveillance.
Shutterstock
The bill seeks greater intelligence powers but neglects oversight.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the Cairo Summit for Peace in October 2023.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s messages, and tone of delivery, suggest an assertive leader representing the interests of the global south.
Aziz Pahad in Tehran in 2004. He was South Africa’s deputy foreign minister at the time.
Henghameh Fahimi/AFP via Getty images
South Africa will miss having a “diplomat-scholar” of his calibre to turn to for sage advice.
Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been impeached and fired as South Africa’s public protector.
Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Awarding punitive costs against legal practitioners would make them think twice about facilitating delaying tactics and malicious lawsuits.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma in court over corruption charges in 2018.
Nic Botha/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
If an offender is lawfully released on medical parole, but their health improves or even if they are cured, they cannot be forced to return to prison.
Essop Pahad was a confidant of former president Thabo Mbeki.
Bongani Mnguni/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
When Essop Pahad was given a job, he did it efficiently. He surprised even his critics with his diligence.
Paul Mashatile, the deputy president of South Africa.
Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Mashatile could be the new broom that sweeps clean. Ramaphosa’s apparent confidence in him suggests that he has some latitude to do so.
Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Vladimir Putin at the first Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia, in 2019.
Photos: GCIS
The government must not trample on its own laws and court decisions. Compliance with the constitution must be the priority.
Pastors pray for former South African president and ANC leader Jacob Zuma.
Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images
Perhaps the combination of religious rhetoric and secular laws is a winning electoral strategy.
Mondli Gungubele, former minister in the Presidency, was in charge of intelligence.
Siyabulela Duga/GCIS
Having an intelligence service that is not fit for purpose means the country is vulnerable to security threats from within and outside the country.
Paul Mashatile was voted ANC deputy president in December 2022.
Deaan Vivier/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The veteran liberation struggle activist brings gravitas to every position he occupies.
Matshela Koko, former acting group CEO of Eskom, testifies at the state capture commission in 2021.
Luba Lesolle/ Gallo Images via Getty Images
The culture of impunity that has lingered since the presidency of Jacob Zuma has to give way to a new era of integrity and accountability.
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa.
South Africa’s foreign policy under Ramaphosa emphasises economic diplomacy and ‘progressive internationalism’, which promotes global equity and ending the dominance of the global north.
President Cyril Ramaphosa.
GCIS/Flickr
It has become increasingly clear that the country needs to start thinking of life without Ramaphosa - and the ANC - in charge.
Protests outside the constitutional court at its decision to grant parole to Chris Hani’s killer, Janusz Walus.
Fani Mahuntsi/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The court should have given the public a much clearer understanding of how it came to its decision, and what consideration it had given to public opinion.
Loyalists of the ANC’s Radical Economic Transformation (RET) at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban.
Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images
Despite its vagueness, the RET has become central to the contemporary ANC. It is destined to remain a powerful bloc within the party, and a constant constraint on Ramaphosa leadership.
Shutterstock
The spy watchdog needs to make its findings on complaints against the country’s intelligence agencies public as a matter of principle.
Cyril Ramaphosa.
Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua via Getty Images
The new process of impeachment requires an objective test to be met.
South Africa’s democratic era presidents, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa.
Penguin Random House South Africa
Mandela, the first president of a democratic South Africa, made big strategic choices – not necessarily the right ones, but certainly ones that were befitting of the times.
South African comedian Trevor Noah at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on September 12, 2022.
Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images
The comic offers important ways of criticising those in power. Trevor Noah is superb at it.