Helen Zille may become the best mayor Johannesburg never had.
- Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
No hay ninguna prueba de que los afrikaners, o los blancos en general, sean objeto de genocidio.
There is no evidence whatsoever that Afrikaners or white people more generally are subject to genocide.
A new book argues that South Africa should ‘start again’, but the reviewer says it doesn’t make a strong case.
South Africa’s 2024 election was characterised by a shift in power and new threats to democracy – despite the majority still opting for the political centre.
Whereas Jan Smuts was to be largely forgotten after his defeat in South Africa’s 1948 election, Nelson Mandela became an international icon.
South Africa’s government of national unity forged after the 2024 elections refutes the claim that there are two antagonistic political camps.
Unless the economic benefits resulting from having the government of national unity become socially inclusive, it might well collapse.
The ANC leads the unity government. If it leads South Africa back to happier times, that is most likely to benefit the ANC, rather than the DA.
There’s confusion in South Africa about what’s driving the popularity of Jacob Zuma and his uMkhonto weSizwe party.
Never has the future of South Africa’s politics been more uncertain, but the one certainty is that the ANC’s standing as a liberation movement is dead.
Critics of the 1994 political settlement largely hail from the black middle class, even though it has been one the principal beneficiaries of South Africa’s social democracy.
There is never going to be a final assessment of Mandela’s legacy. How it is regarded will continue to change, depending on the destination South Africa travels to.
Regarding himself heir to Cecil Rhodes, Oppenheimer deplored the threat to civilisation represented by ‘primitive tribesmen’.
Activists view their moral case for the return of the diamonds as unanswerable, but it runs up against many complications.
How Swapo and the ANC respond to any further decline in electoral support will define the future of democracy in both countries.
The country’s long-dominant party has been losing support in elections.
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.
Queen Elizabeth adjusted with aplomb and good grace – personally and as monarch – as countries achieved their independence from Britain.
Referenda may well have a place in the country’s democracy, but if the form of an electoral system can be referred to a referendum, why not capital punishment, abortion or LGBT rights?
The decolonisation process was to take place rapidly during the reign of Elizabeth II.
Any ruling party in South Africa has found it hard to maintain internal coherence and unity over an extended time span amid wide national diversity.
The ANC retains its determination to rule yet lacks the capacity to do so effectively. The only way out of the dilemma is its defeat in an election.
The democratic transition in 1994 was the result of an ‘elite pact’ that changed the country’s politics, but did little to undermine the foundations of white economic power.
The existing electoral system has attracted extensive criticism for rendering elected representatives unaccountable to those who elected them.
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