Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba, leads a campaign to clean up the city streets. The Star/Itumeleng EnglishCity governments around the world are increasingly challenging nation states when it comes to development, human rights and governance. In the US, for instance, cities are asserting themselves against federal or state governments on controversial issues like environmental standards. Most cities are pledging to meet Paris agreement targets, even though President Donald Trump has withdrawn …
The Conversation
Tumultuous times for South Africa as it enters the era of coalition politics
The Democratic Alliance's Herman Mashaba celebrates victory as Johannesburg's new mayor after the ANC's defeat. The Star/Boxer NgwenyaSouth Africa is in a tryst with tumultuous times as coalitions take shape to unlock hung municipalities following the 2016 local government elections. The implications for local government and the administration of municipalities is enormous. This is because most are largely politicised after 20 years of uninterrupted rule by one party, the African …
Electoral tremors are shaking South Africa’s ANC. How will it respond?
Supporters of South Africa's governing ANC with a mock coffin of the opposition EFF at the ANC's Siyanqoba rally ahead of local elections. Reuters/Siphiwe SibekoSouth Africa’s election 2016 local election signals change. For the first time in the country’s democratic era since 1994, in this tenth major electoral event, the governing ANC is facing the prospects of losing its dominance in several strategically important centres. This occurrence – irrespective of whether the ANC loses or …
Opposition aims for upset in South Africa’s high-stakes election
Voters wait their turn outside a polling station at Nkonjeni village in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The country is gearing up for local elections. Reuters/Radu SighetiThe leading opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has billed the August 3 2016 municipal elections in the country as the most important ever. The word “change” dominates the party’s posters. But the DA is wrong: August 3 will not be the most important electoral date in South Africa – 1994 remains the most …
Why the battle for Nelson Mandela Bay has captured South Africa’s attention
Mmusi Maimane, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, woos voters in hotly-contested Nelson Mandela Bay. Supplied by the DAPolitical heavyweights from South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) and the country’s leading opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) have descended on Nelson Mandela Bay in a bid to woo voters ahead of local government elections. The Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, set in the Eastern Cape, the heartland of the ANC, is a strategic …
The link between public violence and xenophobia in South Africa
Rioters threw stones and looted shops during a recent protest at the Phomolong informal settlement outside Pretoria. Reuters/StrigerSouth African media last year published an unsettling interview with Mandla Matikinya, a branch leader of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League. In it he advocated looting foreign-owned shops over schools and public buildings. This was in the wake of the violence that followed the governing ANC’s choice of a mayoral candidate for the Tshwane metropole. …
Violence in South Africa’s capital leaves ANC vulnerable at the polls
Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa unsuccessfully pleads for calm with angry ANC supporters. EPA/Ihsaan HaffejeeThe violence in Tshwane since South Africa’s governing African National Congress’s (ANC) announced Thoko Didiza as its mayoral candidate has been much analysed. Various players have offered very different interpretations. Publicly the ANC has reduced the situation to a security problem while denying that it is about internal party politics. But the front-page of the Pretoria News, …
Political violence in South Africa points to rising tensions in the ANC
Supporters angered by the ANC's choice of a mayoral candidate went on the rampage in Tshwane, South Africa, . Reuters/Siphiwe SibekoProtesters allied to South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) have been on a rampage following a fallout over the party’s choice of a mayoral candidate for the Tshwane metropole, which includes the administrative capital Pretoria. The Conversation Africa’s politics and society editor Thabo Leshilo put questions to political scientist Keith …