Every South African who cares about the future of the country will agree with former president Mbeki that, to avert disaster, something must be done urgently about its deep socio-economic problems.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2017.
EFE-EPA/Kevin Sutherland
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.
Former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki share a light moment at a meeting of the G8 and developing nations in Tokyo in 2000.
EFE-EPA/Michel Euler
Former presidents Obasanjo and Mbeki have arguably made the most important contribution to Africa in the 21st Century by promoting peace, democracy, regional integration and pan-Africanism.
The springbok emblem was introduced under white rule in South Africa and by retaining it, it remains a burden for many South Africans who followed the Rugby World Cup.
South Africa has the world’s largest white minority living under black rule.Colour line tensions might remain a feature of the country’s political landscape.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the launch of the governing ANC’s 2019 elections manifesto in Durban.
EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook
The vision set out by Cyril Ramaphosa has the seeds for galvanising South Africans to get back on the right path. But it urgently needs a plan to make it happen.
Workers affiliated to the The South African Federation of Trade Unions protest against the proposed minimum wage.
EPA/Nic Bothma
The notion of South African exceptionalism runs deep. Many people in the country believe that in some cases they are superior to the rest of the continent.
South African students have been at the forefront of activism especially over the past two years.
Mike Hutchings/Reuters
Young black South Africans have been raised to believe that friendship across the races is an indicator of progress. Now, a generation into democracy, they are questioning this.
A woman arrives for Nelson Mandela’s memorial. The idea of a rainbow nation has been futile.
EPA/Jim Hollander
Despite the noble goals of the new South Africa and its ideals of racial harmony, racial tensions remain a major problem in the country. Prejudice and bigotry persists even in universities.
South Africa isn’t the “rainbow nation” some claim it to be.
Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
Qunta advocates a reparations fund to accelerate corrective policies, that schools be freed from colonial indoctrination and that African culture should be mainstreamed, especially African languages.
A new book puts forward the thesis that South Africa faces a crisis of governance and leadership rather than an economic crisis.
Yalo
Justice Malala argues that South Africa faces a governance and leadership crisis, rather than an economic crisis. He argues that is not up to the ruling party alone to solve the problem.
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
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.
NRF Accredited & Senior Researcher; Lead Coordinator of the South-South Educational Collaboration & Knowlede Interchange Initiative, Cape Peninsula University of Technology