Democracy in South Africa is meaningless if it doesn’t improve the lives of the people. To do this, the governing ANC must be led by conscientious, competent and interested leaders.
The treaty to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons has been exceptionally successful. Only nine states have them. Now, efforts are underway to completely rid the world of them.
The 1994 Rwandan genocide evokes shame, despair, and revulsion.Yet, the events warrant reflection and remind us about the risks of looking the other way.
Morocco has been on a massive diplomatic drive, using both its political and economic muscle. Since his coronation in 1999, the king has led over 40 visits to African countries south of the Sahara.
Malawi faces the biggest overhaul in its electoral system since the 1990s.
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The proposed change to Malawi’s electoral system is straightforward and makes logical sense. Yet it’s more complex and if adopted would revolutionise local politics.
Chinese President Xi Jinping at the recent Asian-African Conference in Jakarta.
Reuters/Darren Whiteside
If US President Donald Trump is the consummate dealmaker he purports to be, he should find the low risk, high returns of greater US-China-Africa cooperation irresistible.
Swapo supporters celebrated victory in the UN supervised November 1989 election.
Henning Melber
Namibia contributes a positive image to Africa in governance and other indicators. But the reality for most of the country’s 2.3 million people isn’t quite as rosy.
Opposition parties in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to prove themselves worthy to skeptical voters who, unlike in Western competitive systems, don’t trust them over former liberation movements.
Barack Obama’s high standing in sub-Sahara Africa persisted despite grumbling that he never delivered American largess to the degree many initially expected.
Security officials remove members of the Economic Freedom Fighters during South African President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address.
Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
The ANC should draw the lesson that South Africans are unlikely to tolerate the ongoing descent of their politics into the gutter without strident resistance - in the streets, if necessary.
Rejoicing in Banjul, January 2017.
EPA/Legnan Koula
Regional power Ecowas, which has just seen off yet another dictator in Yahya Jammeh, started off with a tame agenda 42 years ago. But it was soon shaped by civil wars, military coups and despots
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has set her sights on becoming the president of South Africa.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
Dlamini-Zuma is an ambiguous, ambitious figure, an operator and bureaucrat with good credentials. But, she offers nothing new and can’t shake off claims that she’s just a shoe-in for her ex-husband.
US President Donald Trump stamped his inaugural speech with the promise of ‘America First’ – a slogan with an ominous past.
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Rhodesia’s white supremacists appealed to the white electorate by taking a stand against African liberation. Similarly, Donald Trump appealed to white Americans who feel overwhelmed by globalisation.
Yarik Turianskyi is Manager of the Governance and African Peer Review Mechanism Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs and guest lecturer in African Governance and Eastern European Politics, University of Pretoria