President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses African National Congress members in Johannesburg in July.
Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images
The country’s long-dominant party has been losing support in elections.
Loyalists of the ANC’s Radical Economic Transformation (RET) at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban.
Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images
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.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa and leader of the governing party.
GCIS
The ANC has been using multiple tactics to fend off the looming calamity of not having Ramaphosa as its president, and that of the country, in the clear absence of a credible candidate to replace him.
President Cyril Ramaphosa testified at the Zondo commission.
EFE-EPA/Sumaya Hisham/Pool
Rebuilding South Africa after the devastation of state capture would not be possible without the work of the Zondo commission.
Members of South Africa’s anti-migrant “Operation Dudula” group march in Jeppestown, Johannesburg.
Michele Spatari / AFP via Getty Images
Ending violence against foreigners can only happen by first recognising – and addressing – the hazards of South Africa’s crumbling system of indirect rule.
Many black South Africans live in appalling conditions with no running water or electricity 27 years into democracy.
Anders Pettersson/Getty Images
The new governing elite mistakenly believes that the goal of a democratic South Africa is simply to extend to everyone what whites enjoyed under apartheid.
Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa as well as of the ruling party, the African National Congress.
Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Ramaphosa is set to go down in the annals of history as an ANC president who presided over a tumultuous epoch in the party’s evolution.
Skyscraper buildings in the Sandton area stand on the skyline beyond residential housing in the Alexandra township in Johannesburg.
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In the country’s insider politics, the majority who try to survive outside the formal economy are talked about, but are never heard.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign against corruption is being undermined from within the governing ANC.
EFE-EPA/Yeshiel Panchia
Ramaphosa’s rise to power in 2018 offered South Africans hope that he would end corruption. Indeed, he made promises to do so. But he has met with resistance, especially within the ANC.
ANC campaigners at voting station in November 2020.
Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The existing electoral system has attracted extensive criticism for rendering elected representatives unaccountable to those who elected them.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma at the State Capture Commission in July 2019.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Metaphors are not used for their own sake in politics, but as part of a strategy to persuade a particular audience to accept a point of view, and act accordingly
Farmers work in a field donated to the black community in Coligny, some 120kms west of Johannesburg.
Luca Sola/AFP via Getty Images
The proposed amendment to the constitution represents a critical juncture in South African constitutional politics.
Former South African President Jacob Zuma.
GCIS
South Africans may well be seduced by the prospect of Zuma appearing at the Zondo commission, but he was not alone in driving the state capture project.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unveils the Green New Deal resolution.
EPA-EFE/SHAWN THEW ALTERNATIVE CROP
By making people confront the scale of the climate challenge, the Green New Deal is a great leap forward.
A victory at the polls might not be enough to give President Cyril Ramaphosa the leeway to fix South Africa’s economy.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
Indications are that even an ANC victory at the polls is unlikely to reverse the party’s decline in popular support.
African National Congress supporters during the recent ANC Election manifesto launch in Durban.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
A great deal of analysis on South Africa and the ruling ANC seems to be based on wishful thinking, not concrete reality.
South Africa needs a new economic policy that envisages an overhaul of the power utility Eskom, which can’t keep the lights on.
EPA/Nic Bothma
South Africa needs a policy that drives growth and positions if for the 21st Century.
Small economic players stand no chance to thrive in South Africa due to domination of key sectors by monopolies.
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South Africa’s idea of radical economic transformation is missing a critical element.
Members of parliament applaud South Africa’s new president Cyril Ramaphosa.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
A tumultuous era has ended and there’s a silver lining to the cloud that has been hanging over South Africa.
South Africa’s new President Cyril Ramaphosa. Rebuilding institutions will be key.
Reuters/Gianluigi Guercia
South Africa has successfully defended its constitutional democracy. But the harsh reality is that the country still faces development challenges.