Catastrophe theory elucidates the inherent vulnerabilities of any system, be it political or otherwise. A system can abruptly spiral into chaos, surprise, or derailment, a culmination of various factors. South Africa's post-election process is a striking example, grappling with an unforeseen context where a political party, not even a blip [...]
The leader of society role of the ANC is now reduced to a 42% influence over the most active agency of the state, the government. The decline of the ANC's political power in the aftermath of the 2024 National and Provincial Elections and the concomitant rise of the opposition complex, [...]
THE EDITED VERSION OF THIS WAS PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY TIMES ONLINE OF 21 May 2024. The battle for South African voters has been fought on the streets, stadiums, social media, and all other platforms. Pacts and coalitions against the governing party were formed and announced. New political parties entered and [...]
THE EDITED VERSION OF THIS WAS PUBLISHED IN THE BUSINESS DAY OF 27 MAY 2024Over the weekend, South Africans were turned into a jury listening to the closing arguments to influence their decisions on May 29, 2024, when actual voting would happen. An enormous citizen challenge awaits in preserving South [...]
By June 16, South Africa would have inaugurated the seventh administration, appointed a new President, and appointed the nine provincial Premiers. The executive authority of the Republic and all sub-national governments will be constituted. A 50% majority vote would have decided on the above process. The democratic order will once [...]
The South African democracy is a nineteenth to twentieth-century construct. It is etched on the promise of equal rights to all voters despite it operating in an economic order that produces chronic inequalities. The politics to conserve order are not in the domain of those we elect; they are a [...]
The election campaigning has officially ended; whoever is still convincing is now clutching the proverbial straws. The country's political parties have spoken, promised, and even lied to us as a society. We are now transparent about who we will vote for, including if we will vote. As a people, we have [...]
South Africa has arrived at a stage where its politics are shaping into two dominant orientations, with rats and mice falling between the uncovered spaces. Two nodes are developing, albeit with ideological overlaps, the intersection of which is an area the economic establishment wishes could be occupied by a pliant [...]
THIS IS THE UNEDITED VERSION OF AN ARTICLE THAT APPEARED IN THE SUNDAY TIMES OF 12 MAY 2024, page 17. The sight of a post-apartheid South African flag burning in your lounge through a national news agency should have evoked emotions of disdain and insult in a state that has a [...]
"It is certainly easy to be wise after the event, and yet this facile wisdom is sometimes illuminating; for life, after all, is a game of blindman’s buff or a horse race in which some dark horse is always the winner", writes Arnold Toynbee in his 1934 rendition on the [...]
