The swearing in ceremony for the newly formed South African cabinet for the government of national unity.
Photo by Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images)
Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet choices appear to have been driven more (if not exclusively) by bona fides and pragmatism. This augurs well for the multi-party arrangement.
Cyril Ramaphosa walks out of Parliament after being elected president of South Africa. He now leads a government of national unity.
Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images
South Africa’s more plural political space might bring in new voices that generate better economic policies.
Activist Nkosikhona Swartbooi leads a protest in the documentary Mother City.
Screengrab/Mother City
The filmmakers followed the Reclaim the City campaign for six years to document their struggle for accommodation in Cape Town’s elite ‘city bowl’.
Cyril Ramaphosa addresses parliament after being announced president of South Africa.
Rodger Bosch / AFP via Getty Images.
Elite political culture matters, especially in the context of a unity government. To succeed, party leaders must embrace the politics of collaboration built on trust.
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.
South Africans protesting against power cuts.
Photo by Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Solutions driven by the private sector are only for those who can pay, and also end up driving public priorities.
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.
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.
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?
The Economic Freedom Fighters marked its 10th anniversary at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on 29 July 2023.
Guillem Sartorio/AFP via Getty Images
Opinions differ widely about the true character of the EFF and what it really stands for since it gained seats in parliament in 2014.
President Cyril Ramaphosa congratulates the new leaders of the ANC in the Western Cape.
Jaco Marais/Die Burger/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The 2024 general elections will show to what extent the new provincial leadership can start to turn around the ANC’s fortunes in the Western Cape.
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.
Supporters of the opposition EFF carry a mock coffin bearing the face of the President Cyril Ramaphosa, leader of the ruling ANC.
Phill Magakoe / AFP via Getty Images
ANC and EFF differ on ideology and policy – an alliance between them would prove difficult to put together and made to work.
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.
Mpho Phalatse was toppled as mayor of Johannesburg following a no-confidence vote in September. A high court reinstated her.
Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images via Getty Images
In South Africa coalitions are weaponised as extensions of elections.
Members of shack-dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo protest the alleged theft of COVID-19 funds in Durban, South Africa.
Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Extra-parliamentary politics forms part of a deeper defence that will give democracy more resilience in South Africa.
Abstention in the 2021 local government election was largely driven by a combination of individual and administrative barriers.
Guillem Sartorio/AFP via Getty Images
The South African electorate is becoming less tied to race and identity-based voting but are increasingly making a wider evaluation of the performance of political incumbents.
Mxolisi Kaunda mayor of eThekwini. If parties or individuals succeed in the politics and practicalities of governing a metro, the rewards are considerable.
Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Metros may be a graveyard for political ambition. But if parties or individuals succeed, the rewards are considerable.
South Africans queue to vote in the 2021 local government elections in Centurion, Tshwane, Pretoria.
GCIS/Flickr
The election results raise the real possibility that the ANC could be looking at another defeat in the 2024 general elections.