Tag: democracy

South Africa’s 257 municipalities, the bedrock of local governance, are currently grappling with a severe trifecta of challenges. These challenges include worsening financial mismanagement, decaying infrastructure and rapidly eroding citizen trust. Restoring trust and performance has become a national priority.

The Overthrow of Robert Mugabe argues that the 2017 coup, which ousted long-time Zimbabwean president Robert Gabriel Mugabe, cannot be accurately or rigorously understood without examining the crucial role of gender and women’s politics in military seizures of power.

Gatsha Buthelezi: Chief with a Double Agenda was first published in London in 1988. However, it was made unavailable in South Africa due to litigation threats by Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Gatsha Buthelezi operated from within the apartheid system of the South African government.

Mac Maharaj played a pivotal role in the liberation movement for nearly four decades. He endured brutal torture and spent twelve years imprisoned on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela. Maharaj smuggled out the manuscript of Mandela’s autobiography. He later returned to South Africa to build a political and military underground.

As President Cyril Ramaphosa doubles down on the promise to turn South Africa into a ‘construction site', one factor in the infrastructure development equation has become increasingly vital to government plans' success. That factor is meaningful community-centred infrastructure development and involvement.

There is a complex relationship between privacy and freedom of expression. Both rights are enshrined in the South African Constitution and are essential to a democratic society. The right to privacy safeguards personal autonomy by protecting individuals from undue intrusions into their private lives. Freedom of expression, on the other hand, promotes open debate and the sharing of information, which are vital for democracy.

South Africa has produced two globally recognised leaders from different eras: Jan Christiaan Smuts and Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Smuts served as Prime Minister from 1919 to 1924 and again from 1939 to 1948. Mandela served as President from 1994 to 1999.

Siphokazi Jonas is a weaver of seemingly discordant worlds; growing up in an Afrikaans dorpie, attending an English boarding school, and going on annual holidays to a village emaXhoseni during the transition years of South Africa’s democracy made this a necessity.

2024 has been dubbed the ‘super election year’. According to Statista, around half the world’s population lives in the more than 60 countries holding national elections in 2024, and with roughly two billion eligible voters, this is being described as the largest election year in history.

The results are in. The African National Congress has attained 40% of the vote, the Democratic Alliance (DA) 21%, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) 14%, and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) 9%. It is clear that some of these parties enjoy too much support in the context of a country that claims to be a constitutional state that prioritises the rule of law and which requires massive foreign and domestic private investment.