It was almost anti-climactic, but as expected, Jacob Zuma is the new president of the African National Congress. Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki embrace at the Polokwane conference. (Lisa Skinner, Mail & Guardian) Zuma's 2,329 votes comfortably outpaced Thabo Mbeki's 1,505. Strap yourselves in. 2008 is going to be a hell of a year in […]
The ANC Conference in Polokwane is under way and it is quite clear that the theme of the meeting will be: division, division, division. But politics is drama, and so one of the themes emerging from Polokwane is a bit surprising: sympathy for a desultory Thabo Mbeki in light of all signs, including supernatural omens, […]
This weekend's New York Times Sunday Book Review features two of South Africa's literary giants. Novelist Siddhartha Deb reviews Nadine Gordimer's new book, Beethoven Was One Sixteenth Black and Other Stories. A taste, from Deb's conclusion: These stories aren't mere exercises. Even as variations, with a fixed set of characters confronting similar situations, they create […]
Don't miss Mark Gevisser's concise, insightful assessment in The New York Times of the succession struggle and the state of South African politics. But whatever happens, the fissure in the A.N.C. brings a long-overdue logic to South African politics. Since the early 1990s, the left and center have been held together by the skein of […]
In today's Polokwane update, three larger-than-life figures feature prominently: Jacob Zuma is a “pop star to the poor” despite (because of?) the accusations that have been levied against him. Thabo Mbeki is “on a knife's edge” as he faces the very real prospect of losing power. And Winnie Madikizela Mandela, herself both a heroine to the […]
Just an FYI: An Economist correspondent from New Zealand has been posting a daily diary from South Africa this week. He introduces himself: JUST to clear up any misconceptions: I am not, and have never been, The Economist's South Africa correspondent. The extent to which I am not may soon become obvious: still, this point […]
As if things aren't tough enough for Zimbabwe's opposition. Robert Mugabe is running roughshod over his people and determined to run for (and inevitably win) election again. And now it appears that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), up until recently the only even vaguely viable counter to Mugabe's ZANU-PF, is, “in trouble,” according to an IRIN report. “Already split into feuding […]
OK, let's do our best to continue to make sense out of the news, noise, and nonsense emanating from all corners in South African politics. While some preach unity others call for insubordination, it is no wonder that so many of South Africa's great political minds worry about the fallout from the fast-approaching ANC meetings. […]
The Europe-Africa summit has come and gone. Robert Mugabe was the most visible figure at the summit, and he made his share of noise, prattling on about most of the same things about that which he prattles whenever he has cameras on him and with his acquiescent media lapdogs at home lauding him as a […]
You’ll probably want to bookmark IOL's Polokwane coverage, which has frequently updated news stories, opinion pieces, and much more.
I tend to believe that The Mail & Guardian is the best newspaper in South Africa (and maybe in the entire region), both in print and online, and as my readers know, I refer to it often in my posts and commentary. But I was stricken by an example of sloppiness in this story on […]
If it's a new day in South Africa it inevitably means that the tension level has been ratcheted up another notch. The biggest story may be the rumors that if Jacob Zuma wins the ANC presidency he will get to work trying to find a way to force Mbeki out of office. One cannot help […]
The EU-Africa summit kicks off tonight in grand style. The central figure in the drama that plays out will still be Robert Mugabe whose very inclusion in the meeting has been the source of much debate in the past few months. Still a hero to a few but a pariah to most, the wily despot, […]
Polokwane is not the only (or arguably even the most) contested political terrain in South Africa. One can be certain that the naming of Jake White's successor as Springbok head coach will be every bit as full of recriminations, barbed comments, and backroom politicking as anything that happens among the ANC's National Executive Committee in […]
The biggest news from South Africa today is Thabo Mbeki's interview with the ANC, which naturally aroused controversy among many who believed the interview and the timing to be an inappropriate allocation of public resource. In his talk Mbeki tried to sound a note of party unity, arguing that whatever happens in Polokwane will not […]