Democracy & Social Justice

In South Africa, Jacob Zuma’s presidency posed the most difficult test yet to the country’s young democracy but also boosted the political opposition. This article considers whether the opposition’s momentum can be maintained against a revived ANC under President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Heinrich Böll Stiftung: European Union and Heinrich Böll Stiftung: Paris will host South African speakers to discuss efforts to hold global banks accountable for newly-identified apartheid-era economic crimes.

Open Secrets - Secretariat of the People’s Tribunal - has invited 38 implicated parties to respond to the evidence submitted against them at the first People’s Tribunal on Economic Crime. 

Zimbabwe’s electoral processes have long drawn criticism and have failed to receive universal recognition as being ‘free and fair’. There have been multiple factors contributing to this, and the various elections since 2000 in particular have been extensively written about by civic organizations in Zimbabwe.

The public hearings on economic crimes in South Africa will be an important moment in the country's history, says adjudicator Yasmin Sooka.

The 2015 #RhodesMustFall protests – which started at the University of Cape Town – led to nationwide calls for the “decolonisation” of universities and free higher education. Zethu Matebeni gives her perspective.

A deeply divided society, where anger is growing about high income and wealth gaps that continue to run along racial lines, calls Nelson Mandela’s legacy into question. 

Mukoma wa Ngugı sees hope in new, horizontal social movements that may bring to the fore a new iconography that transcends the individual and depoliticised “saviour”. 

Multinationals need to be held accountable for "aiding and abetting" the apartheid regime, says a civil society representative at the People's Tribunal. Article by Marc Davies.