The activist is today the subject of songs, sculptures, an annual lecture and even a new musical.
Mpho Phalatse was toppled as mayor of Johannesburg following a no-confidence vote in September. A high court reinstated her.
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Mbeki has successfully transitioned from being an old horse of South Africa’s governing ANC to a highly venerated and in-demand African elder statesman.
Land ownership in South Africa remains skewed towards white farmers.
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Basic income support is not a question of government “being generous”. The money will be taken from employed citizens and the affluent.
South Africa’s President and African National Congress (ANC) party President Cyril Ramaphosa cuts the cake during the ANC’s 110th anniversary celebrations.
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Ramaphosa currently has no known rivals with widespread support within the African National Congress.
Abstention in the 2021 local government election was largely driven by a combination of individual and administrative barriers.
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The South African electorate is becoming less tied to race and identity-based voting but are increasingly making a wider evaluation of the performance of political incumbents.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa (L) is congratulated by leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party Mangosuthu Buthelezi (R) after being elected president of South Africa during the swearing in of new members of the National Assembly.
Nic Bothma
The failure of the 2021 post-election deal is a missed opportunity for the African National Congress and Inkatha to work together.
Mxolisi Kaunda mayor of eThekwini. If parties or individuals succeed in the politics and practicalities of governing a metro, the rewards are considerable.
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South Africa’s youth unemployment tax incentive is effectively a subsidy to the profits of companies.
Former Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Athol Trollip, from the DA, third from left, and his deputy Mongameli Bobani, from the UDM, extreme right, help clean up a street in 2017.
by Werner Hills/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
South Africa’s political parties would do well to learn from Ireland, where the three largest political parties negotiated a coalition treaty that stipulated mechanisms for conflict resolution.
South African president and leader of the ruling ANC Cyril Ramaphosa.
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The ANC did not create most of the patterns for which it is blamed. But it has done far too little to change them and often seems happy simply to live with them.
Some political parties, including the Economic Freedom Fighters, want municipal elections postponed because they can’t host campaign rallies.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
The revered trombonist, composer and cultural activist never wished to be ‘the state composer’ but remained political until the end, in service of the people.
Human rights lawyer and anti-apartheid activist George Bizos at Freedom Park, Pretoria, in 2013.
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His appearance on behalf of the families of mine workers shot by the police at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry was just one of his efforts to seek justice for the poor and marginalised.
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