Twee Toring Church in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Wikimedia
Political secularism in South Africa is shaping into a tense contest between the relative ambitions of state and religious actors.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma.
Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images.
Opinion polls show that the uMkhonto weSizwe party enjoys significant support in KwaZulu-Natal, Jacob Zuma’s home province.
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, left, canvasses for votes in Johannesburg.
Olympia de Maissmont/AFP via Getty Images.
The 2024 elections may be the tipping point that enables opposition parties to portray themselves as viable contenders in forming a national coalition government.
The question of whether the constitution should continue to be supreme has become a public as well as a political issue.
Shutterstock
The constitution and the principle of constitutionalism will continue to be politically contested territory. So far it’s held in South Africa.
Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma: two very different styles of governing.
Jon Hrusa/EPA
The second episode of What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa?, a three-part podcast series on The Conversation Weekly. Featuring interviews with Mashupye Maserumule and Michael Sachs.
Public confidence in the Constitutional Court is key to its legitimacy.
Felix Dlangamandla/AFP via Getty Images.
The court covered itself in glory in the first 15 years, but its performance has been patchy since then, coinciding with Jacob Zuma’s presidency.
Nelson Mandela takes the oath as South Africa’s president in Pretoria on 10 May 1994.
Walter Dhladhla/AFP via Getty Images
A lot of good has happened since apartheid ended in 1994. Sadly, 30 years on, the country is in a political and economic crisis. Many are questioning the choices of the past three decades.
A memorial to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny laid in Saint Petersburg on February 16, 2024.
Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump says he’s being politically persecuted, like Russian democracy martyr Alexei Navalny, who died while in a Russian prison on Feb. 16. A scholar says there’s no comparison between the men.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma is campaigning for a new opposition party opposition.
Chesnot/Getty Images
Jacob Zuma claims that his new political home, the Umkhonto we Sizwe Party, is the authentic ANC, not the one led by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
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.