The Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto honours school children who were murdered by apartheid police in June 1976.
Mujahid Safodien/AFP via Getty Images.
Following Jacob Zuma’s tenure, during which corruption became endemic, tarnishing the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa was touted as the party’s saviour. But he failed to impress.
Supporters of the African National Congress at its ‘victory’ rally in Johannesburg ahead of the 2024 general election.
Zhang Yudong/Xinhua via Getty Images
Never has the future of South Africa’s politics been more uncertain, but the one certainty is that the ANC’s standing as a liberation movement is dead.
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
South Africa’s ANC party has dominated government for 30 years, but it looks like it is about to be thrown out.
Some newspapers defied government threats in 2013, and published pictures of President Jacob Zuma’s private home, which was revamped using taxpayers’ money.
Alexander Joe/AFP via Getty Images.
The constitution and the principle of constitutionalism will continue to be politically contested territory. So far it’s held in South Africa.
Young jobless South African graduates protest outside the Union Buildings, the seat of government, in Pretoria.
Frennie Shivambu/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The third and final part of our series What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa on The Conversation Weekly podcast. Featuring interviews with Sithembile Mbete and Richard Calland.
A statue of Nelson Mandela in an upmarket shopping square.
C. Na Songkhla/Shutterstock
Commerce, culture and heritage mix in rather strange and sometimes unsettling ways in South Africa, especially when the struggle for freedom is commemorated.
Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma: two very different styles of governing.
Jon Hrusa/EPA
The second episode of What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa?, a three-part podcast series on The Conversation Weekly. Featuring interviews with Mashupye Maserumule and Michael Sachs.
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
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.
Nelson Mandela greets people as he walks with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on his arrival in Ottawa, June 17, 1990, for a three-day visit to Canada.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Wm. DeKay
Many South Africans have a strong personal relationship with Nelson Mandela. The planned auction felt like a transgression of the moral boundary of familial respect.
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, SC, receives a hero’s welcome at Oliver Tambo International Airport on arrival from The Hague.
Alaister Russell / AFP via Getty Images.
Professor of Public Theology in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Theology, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam