AFTER THE horror of the Nazi regime and witnessing the Soviet dictatorship under Stalin, British prime minister Winston Churchill declared in 1947: “Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. …

Thirty-four years after independence, Namibia’s former liberation movement seems poised to face its toughest challenge to remain in political control of the country’s central government. But can anything new be expected? The presidential and National Assembly elections of November 2019…

Decreased support for the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa’s elections on 29 May was expected. But a decline from 57% to 40% marked a turning point in the country’s democracy. It also confirmed the general decline in popularity…

Declaring 28 May a public holiday in remembrance of the 1904-08 genocide against the herero and Nama people by Germans is a small but significant victory worth celebrating. As one of many activists who has highlighted the contradiction of our…

Forget about the last 30 years of South African democracy. The results of the 29 May election have opened a new chapter despite almost 25 million people who could have voted not doing so; 13 million eligible voters did not…

Forget about the last 30 years of South African democracy.The results of the 29 May election have opened a new chapter despite almost 25 million people who could have voted not doing so; 13 million eligible voters did not register,…

AIMÉ CÉSAIRE states in his ‘Discourse on Colonialism’ that colonialism decivilises the coloniser, brutalises him, degrades him, “to awaken him to buried instinct, to covetous violence, race hatred, and moral relativism” as “universal regression”. As Césaire observes: “The coloniser, who…

An election year with intense competition and fierce campaigning needs measured behaviour. When the dominance of a former liberation movement is waning, political opponents risk violating the norms and principles of a constitutional democracy. But efforts to minimise such risks…