African National Congress president Cyril Ramaphosa, centre, and fellow party national executive members.
Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images
Political parties must show ideological flexibility to foster stability and drive South Africa towards prosperity through creative policy solutions.
White voters are the most loyal to one party among the South African electorate.
Racial identities continue to shape voter behaviour in post-apartheid South Africa.
Cyril Ramaphosa, president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and of South Africa, speaks at the official election results announcement.
Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Image
South Africans need to hold onto their seats. It’s going to be a rocky five years.
South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor addresses the media outside the ICJ at The Hague.
Selman Aksunger/Anadolu via Getty Images
The country will see more foreign policy continuity if the ANC partners with smaller parties that share its world view.
ANC leader and South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, attends an election rally at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 2024.
Kim Ludbrook / EPA
Polls suggest the ANC is set to lose its majority in South Africa.
The new MK Party’s slogan #Mayibuye and its green, gold and black colours share the ruling ANC’s own branding.
Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images
Former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party borrows the slogan “mayibuye” from the liberation party to make a point about the ruling African National Congress.
South Africans in the UK and other foreign countries voted ahead of the polls opening at home.
Benjamin Cremel/AFP via Getty Images.
The growing loss of support for the governing ANC raises the possibility of South Africa having its first national coalition government since 1994.
Current president Cyril Ramaphosa leads the ANC.
Eva-Lotta Jansson/Alamy
South Africa’s ANC party has dominated government for 30 years, but it looks like it is about to be thrown out.
People queue outside a South African Social Security Agency office.
Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images.
Many grant recipients are young, unemployed, and not necessarily loyal to the governing ANC like older generations.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma.
Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images.
Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe is now the largest party in KwaZulu-Natal and the fourth biggest nationally.
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.
Winnie Madikizela Mandela and Nelson Mandela were mythologised for the greater good.
Shawn Walker/Getty Images
Would South Africa have been torn apart by civil war without the myth of Nelson Mandela?
The April 1994 international mediation team in South Africa, with Washington Okumu sitting between the US’s Henry Kissinger and the UK’s Peter Carrington.
Washington Okumu, reused by Nancy J. Jacobs with permission
In a matter of days, one Kenyan’s intervention helped give South Africa a peaceful transition to its first post-apartheid government.
Nelson Mandela casts his vote in South Africa’s 1994 election.
TT News Agency / Alamy Stock Photo
The first episode of What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa?, a three-part podcast series on The Conversation Weekly. Featuring interviews with Steven Friedman and Sandy Africa.
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.
Voters cast their ballots by candle light during previous elections in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Times/Gallo Images/Getty Images
As South Africa heads towards elections, there is no quick fix solution to the electricity crisis in the country. What exactly are the political parties promising voters?
Cover detail of the book Guerrillas and Combative Mothers.
UKZN Press
The interviews in this book offer firsthand insights into women’s participation in the armed struggle against apartheid.
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.
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, centre, and his deputy, Paul Mashatile, right, help cut the cake at the party’s 112th anniversary celebration at Mbombela Stadium, Mpumalanga.
Dirk Kotze/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The ANC leans heavily on its liberation movement brand. But this will not necessarily be a determining factor in who will sway voters later this year.
A hand painted advertisement for Coke in Arusha, Tanzania.
Derek Hudson/Getty Images
Coca-Cola has often been entangled with key political moments in Africa since its arrival in the early 1900s.