Africa and the ICC Going Forward
October 2016 presented a grim test for the fourteen-year-old International Criminal Court (ICC) as three Sub-Saharan African countries, Burundi, South Africa and Gambia announced their decision to opt out of the international judicial body.
South African Local Elections 2016. From One Party Dominance to Effective Plural Democracy
The South African political landscape experienced a shock from an unlikely source; the country’s local government elections on August 3, 2016 representing the last tier of government and often overlooked in favour of national and provincial polls.
The Election of Mmusi Maimane as Leader of the Democratic Alliance: a New Era for the Opposition in South Africa
At the end of the Democratic Alliance (DA)’s federal congress held in Port Elizabeth on Sunday 10th May 2015, Helen Zille was replaced by Mmusi Maimane after eight years as leader of South Africa’s largest opposition party. This passing of the baton had a significant impact both nationally and internationally because of the colour of Mmusi Maimane’s skin: for the first time, the party will actually be led by a black man. More than 20 years after the end of apartheid it may seem surprising that this event has excited people’s curiosity and interest, but it demonstrates that until now South African politics have often been polarized along race lines.
DRC’S Regional Positioning, in Between the African Great Lakes and Southern Africa
How transparent are the Democratic Republic of Congo’s regional strategies?
A Class Defined "by Consumption": The Grocery-Shopping Practices of the Lower-Middle Classes in Johannesburg, South Africa
The black middle class in Johannesburg is a much debated but ill-defined phenomenon, treated more often by economic players than by social scientists. Far from static and clear, the concept of the middle class is for us relevant insofar as it reveals crucial dynamics of the society.
South Africa and the Arab Spring: opportunities to match diplomacy goals and strategies
This paper highlights how the Arab Spring magnified a two-dimensional gap in South Africa’s foreign policy. First that South Africa does not have a vision which reconciles demands for achieving the goals of protecting human rights, sovereignty, and multilateralism; second, that its strategies do not meet set goals. The paper then provides tentative explanations to this gap. It ends by elaborating what in the “African Awakening” and in the midst of the Arab Spring are opportunities for South Africa to overcome this gap.
Beyond Racial Dynamics in the South African Political Space, The Constrained Ambition of the Democratic Alliance
Since 1994 and the first democratic elections, the ANC has been dominating the South African political scene, although this should not hide the existence of a sizeable opposition among political parties and civil society.
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