It’s Just Africa: Corruption Threatens Two Decades of Democracy in South Africa

For the first time in the 20 years since the end of apartheid in South Africa, riot police entered the National Assembly to break up a brawl that erupted between members of parliament (MPs) during the heated Nkandla debate. The police removed MPs from both opposition parties, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), from the chamber, to the delight of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) MPs. The DA asked law-enforcement authorities on Monday to charge an ANC MP and the police with assault against four of its members. The opposition and critics of the ANC decried the forcible removal of opposition MPs as another instance of ANC’s blatant abuse of power. 

There are two factors at play that led directly to Thursday’s parliamentary brawl. The first is that the composition of the South African parliament is changing, with not only a greater representation of opposition parties, but also with stronger relationships developing between those opposition parties against the ANC. For the past two decades, the ANC has enjoyed essentially unchecked power in the parliament as well as majority support in eight of South Africa's nine provinces. Opposition parties were represented, but were unable to combine their power against the ruling party. The Western Cape province is the only one that has been and continues to be controlled by an opposition party (the DA).

In the face of the ongoing Nkandla scandal, South Africa’s opposition parties have found common ground to unite against the governing party with unexpected coordination and energy. In this year's elections, opposition parties took a greater percentage of the vote in all provinces, while the ANC lost a percentage of the vote in more than half of the provinces. 

Nelson Mandela - Champion of Equality and Reconciliation

Nelson Mandela passed away at the age of 95 last week, leaving behind one of the greatest legacies of any human being from our lifetime. His courage and forward thinking led him from difficult revolutionary times in the middle of the last century all the way to becoming President of South Africa and ultimately being credited with the downfall of the Apartheid era, which ushered in the era of growth and prosperity South Africa has continued to join. Instead of listing the ways in which Mr. Mandela changed the world and the achievements he accomplished, one would have a simpler task of listing the things he did not do.

Mandela had a place in the opposition to Apartheid racism as early as the 1940s, when he began being active in the African National Congress Youth League. His law studies at the University of Witwatersrand introduced him to many liberal-minded students from all over the world, grounding him in a global perspective that would serve him going forward over the next several decades.

Madiba Mandela: A Father To a Legacy

By guest contributor Allyson Clancy

Madiba: the name of the isiXhosa clan that Nelson Mandela belongs to.  The clan dates back to the 18^th century, and the name was originally given to a Thembu Chief.

Rolihlahla: Mandela’s birth name. The literal translation means, “pulling a branch of a tree,” but the phrase is interpreted to mean troublemaker.

Tata: isiXhosa for father.[1]

Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa and one of the most influential leaders of his time, is known by all three of the names above. From the central Transkei region where he was born to the coastal city, Cape Town in the southwestern part of the country where he proclaimed his freedom after imprisonment, to the capital Pretoria where he currently lives at the age of 94, his name has been immortalized as his legacy lives on.