While ‘patron’ is a position with no formal power, it’s an important role for members of the royal family.
The Clerk of the Chamber of the Crown Office in the House of Lords presents the Queen’s seal affixed to the royal charter document, conferring city status on Brighton and Hove in 2001.
Roger Bamber / Alamy Stock Photo
Ramaphosa is constrained by his tenuous control over South Africa’s governing party, the ANC.
The Queen is patron to over 600 charities, as Prince Andrew steps away from his 200, the benefit of royal patronage is being called into question.
FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA
Robert Mugabe’s rule in Zimbabwe is over. But the country’s road to democracy remains a bumpy one as Zanu-PF, the new president and the military go about entrenching power.
Rural areas across South Africa are hosting battles for control of land.
Reuters/Yannis Behrakis
A different form of state capture is underway in South Africa’s rural areas where traditional leaders are selling off people’s land to miners. But communities are fighting back.
The misfortunes experienced by Brian Molefe, the CEO of South Africa’s power utility Eskom, shows that the battle for the country’s public purse is not a one way bet.
South Africa’s cabinet reshuffle saw Malusi Gigaba become finance minister and Sifiso Buthelezi his deputy.
REUTERS/James Oatway
The economic transformation discussion document released by South Africa’s governing party, the ANC, fails to be radical.
Workers at Medupi coal-fired power station during its construction, one of South Africa’s most costly and environmentally unfriendly projects.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
In preparing the 2017 national budget South Africa needs to take heed of warnings that its historical austerity measures are hurting the poor and even costing lives.
In his recent state of the nation address South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma spoke emphatically of “radical economic transformation” causing nationwide debate. What does it really mean?
A mural depicting populist dictators painted onto remnants of the Berlin Wall in Berlin in 2014.
Henning Melber
The legitimacy and credibility of those in power has been eroded by bad governance, patronage and the obsession to claim an exclusive agency representing the people.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma is part of a faction which embraces patronage politics.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
It is common to reduce the politics of the ANC to a battle between personalities. A closer look suggest that this is a fight between two factions, both of them products of trends in the economy.
South Africans are increasingly taking to the streets to demand accountability from government.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
South Africa has never reached an embedded democratic state. Its post-apartheid experience more realistically reflects ongoing oscillation between a deepening and a reversal of democratic liberties.
AIDS activists demand that the government of then-South African president Thabo Mbeki show a clear plan to fight the disease.
Reuters
One of the remarkable achievements of South Africa’s Constitutional Court has been its role in improving the quality of the internal democratic processes within the governing ANC.