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.
Jacob Zuma at the launch of his new party, uMkhonto Wesizwe, in 2023.
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The ANC tied itself in knots defending Zuma’s destructive bad behaviour in the past. Acting against him now would require it to own up to its sins.
The African National Congress has lost electoral support but remains dominant.
Phill Magakoe / AFP via Getty Images.
Dissatisfied ANC voters were much more likely to switch their votes if they held positive views of an opposition party. However, the problem for the opposition is that few people held these views.
Eusebius McKaiser in 2022.
Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Outspoken, astute and sometimes controversial, he transcended the role of talk radio host to become a public intellectual.
Presidents Hage Geingob, left, and Cyril Ramaphosa at the Union Buildings in Tshwane.
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How Swapo and the ANC respond to any further decline in electoral support will define the future of democracy in both countries.
29 years of democracy has left its mark.
Rather battered and frayed South African flag billowing in the wind against a cloud-strewn sky.
A threshold has been crossed, with a pessimistic outlook becoming more dominant than an optimistic one.
Paul Mashatile, the deputy president of South Africa.
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Mashatile could be the new broom that sweeps clean. Ramaphosa’s apparent confidence in him suggests that he has some latitude to do so.
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.
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.
The African National Congress’s fully black leadership belies its commitment to non-racialism.
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Mzala’s distinctive intellectual contribution combined a sophisticated grasp of revolutionary theory with the reality of ethnic nationalism.
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.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.
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The impeachment process could derail Ramaphosa’s political career and seriously hurt the governing ANC’s electoral prospects in 2024.
Protesters demonstrate outside the high court in Cape Town against parole for Janusz Walus.
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The decision is likely to be relied on by courts to order the Department of Correctional Services to grant offenders parole.
Cyril Ramaphosa.
Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua via Getty Images
The new process of impeachment requires an objective test to be met.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the 2022 state of nation address to a joint sitting of Parliament. Coalitions could soon be a feature of national government.
Jaco Marais/Pool Images/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
Stable coalitions will depend on strong democratic values being embedded among political elites.
Mpho Phalatse was toppled as mayor of Johannesburg following a no-confidence vote in September. A high court reinstated her.
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In South Africa coalitions are weaponised as extensions of elections.
Voters in Johannesburg queue to vote in South Africa’s May 2019 national elections.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
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?
Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa and leader of the governing party.
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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.
Basotho men wearing the traditional blankets during the annual horse race held on the king’s birthday.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Lesotho has done a good job of curbing the powers of its monarch and making its electoral system inclusive.
The African National Congress is steadily losing dominance.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
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.