Jacob Zuma

Wednesday, December 11th, 2013

The Day Jacob Zuma Lost Control of the Party?

One way of looking at Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s words at the end of the farcical Nelson Mandela’s memorial service is that of an angry patriarch embarrassed by the actions of errant adolescents. The other is that the archbishop was stepping into a void that used to be filled by the larger-than-life figure of Nelson Mandela. In...

Thursday, October 24th, 2013

South Africa’s a Continent

South African president Jacob Zuma’s visit to Malawi in August appears to have renewed his appreciation for the quality of the roads network in Gauteng, South Africa’s smallest yet wealthiest province. Speaking at a listening session in...

Monday, August 12th, 2013

The ‘premature’ launch of South Africa’s second 24-hour news channel

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)–which commands the largest TV audience inside that country–launched its 24-hour television news channel at the beginning of August. It’s the second homegrown 24-hour news channel–the other, ENCA (ENews Channel Africa), which...

Thursday, July 18th, 2013

Julius Malema’s next move

As South Africa’s 2014 general elections approach and the ruling ANC continues to weaken under Jacob Zuma’s leadership, a host of new political parties and formations are beginning to enter the political scene — from Mamphela Ramphele’s Agang...

Friday, December 28th, 2012

10 Contested Images of 2012

Remember that little video campaign called #Kony2012? Yeah, we wish we could forget too. Few videos have reached the magnitude of pestilence that the non-profit Invisible Children’s video achieved this year. By transforming a complex regional crisis...

Friday, December 21st, 2012

Why would the BBC care what FW de Klerk thinks?

Reporting on President Jacob Zuma’s landslide re-election as leader of South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday, the BBC sought the opinion of former apartheid ruler F. W. de Klerk. De Klerk “… told the BBC...