Latest news with #post-Apartheid
New Indian Express
27-06-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
'Fourth branch' and fall of the Election Commission from Seshan's highs
A 'fourth branch' of government... Modern constitutions increasingly feature them—a constellation of institutions tasked with protecting constitutional democracy. Among the most prominent of these are electoral bodies, anti-corruption agencies, ecological tribunals, and ombudsman offices. In India, these include the Election Commission, Comptroller and Auditor General, Information Commissions, Lokpal, National Green Tribunal, among others. Much like Santa's elves, these institutions work quietly behind the scenes, performing essential functions that keep democracy functional—often without receiving due credit. And while elves become most visible during Christmas, these institutions come to the fore during moments of democratic stress—elections, corruption scandals, or constitutional breakdowns. They are presumed to be independent and non-partisan. Raison d'être of the Fourth Branch South Africa's post-Apartheid Constitution refers to these entities as "State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy". The traditional Montesquieuan framework of three branches of government—legislative, executive, and judiciary—is increasingly seen as insufficient for modern constitutional design. American legal scholar Bruce Ackerman, in The New Separation of Powers (2000), conceptualised an "Integrity Branch" devoted to rooting out corruption, as a fourth branch of governance. Similarly, Martin Loughlin spoke of the rise of the "ephorate" in modern democracies, drawing from ancient Greece, where ephors were empowered to supervise the state and conduct inquiries. Today's fourth-branch institutions are the ephors of our times. Governance is sustained over time not only through structural integrity but also through the promotion of civic virtues—or what Jürgen Habermas calls "constitutional patriotism." These institutions are the state's extra limbs that embody and protect those virtues. Hans Kelsen, among the most influential jurists of the 20th century, was the one who proposed a fourth function of governance: the preservation of constitutional order through a dedicated guardian of the constitution. Today, fourth-branch institutions largely fulfil this role. Moreover, some of these institutions require and possess specialised expertise unavailable within the traditional three branches. In contemporary democracies, political parties wield real power—often beyond the constitutional framework. Parties in power may resort to enacting policies that entrench their hold on power, such as manipulating electoral rules or engaging in large-scale corruption. Alarmingly, opposition parties often do not challenge these practices, anticipating a future opportunity to use the same tools. This dynamic creates an urgent need for independent constitutional guardians—like the fourth-branch bodies we have been discussing—and robust institutional design. An umpire in flux Ironically, fourth-branch institutions are most successful where they are least needed. The Indian experience validates this paradox: the independence of institutions like the Election Commission has steadily eroded since the rise of the BJP as a dominant political force with no foreseeable challenger. Malaysia's 2018 general election offers a cautionary example. Since 1957, Malaysian politics was dominated by the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. The Election Commission, responsible for delimitation and elections, was seen as an extension of BN. During the 2018 elections, it scheduled polling for a Wednesday—an inconvenient day for many working citizens and overseas Malaysians. It also redrew constituencies in ways that clearly advantaged the ruling coalition. In India, the Constitution vests the Election Commission with sweeping powers to supervise, direct, and control the conduct of elections to Parliament and the offices of the President and Vice President. Its mandate includes maintaining voter rolls, ensuring free and fair voting, and accurate vote counting. For decades, the Commission earned praise for maintaining the integrity of India's elections. A 1999 report even found it had the highest level of public trust among all public institutions. Under TN Seshan's assertive leadership—bolstered by the weak coalition governments—the Election Commission emerged as a robust pillar of democracy. However, since the return of a dominant-party system under the BJP, the Commission's strength has visibly declined. The decline in trust Recent years have seen a growing perception that the Election Commission of India (ECI) operates with partisan bias. Critics allege selective enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct, often acting against opposition parties while overlooking violations by the ruling party. Inflammatory statements by powerful leaders often go unpunished, raising concerns about neutrality. Though there is no conclusive proof of tampering with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the ECI's resistance to full-scale VVPAT audits—as recommended by the Supreme Court and civil society—has increased public skepticism. The Commission has also failed to check the misuse of electoral bonds, which obscure the sources of political funding. The process for appointing Election Commissioners is also a concern. The ruling party has effectively monopolized appointments, excluding the Chief Justice from the selection panel. The departure from the assertive, independent style of leaders like Seshan has been striking. Current commissions are seen as more deferential to the executive. Santa's elves are traditionally seen as neutral, diligent helpers—just as fourth-branch institutions are expected to operate independently, irrespective of who is in power. But when the elves go idle, Santa's sleigh ride becomes meaningless. If fourth-branch institutions fail to uphold constitutional democracy, the only alternative is to strengthen other institutions and civic movements that promote constitutional patriotism and civic virtue. (Faisal CK is Deputy Law Secretary to the Government of Kerala. Views are personal.)
IOL News
26-06-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
From Astoria to Athlone: What Zohran Mamdani's Mayoral Run Means for Cape Town's Future Politics
Faiez Jacobs reflects on his four decades in South African politics and explores how Zohran Mamdani's Mayoral run could reignite hope and transform local governance in Cape Town ahead of the 2026 elections. Image: Madison Stewart / Zohran Mamdani Website I have spent almost four decades in the trenches of South African politics, organising high school youth in the Cape Flats, standing on protest lines during apartheid, political detention, post-Apartheid developmental bureaucrat, party secretary , negotiating hope in Parliament, and now walking the reflective road of reinvention. Politics, for me, has always been about people. About how we show up, serve, and struggle with and for our communities. We are both tired and jaded by the current political theatre, where power often speaks louder than principle, so when I read about a young man of African descent born in New York, shaped in Kampala, and partly schooled in Cape Town has reignited hope in the transformative potential of local government. I saw a mirror. A message. A movement that speaks to what we must become again, here in South Africa, especially in Cape Town building up to our 2026 Local Government Elections. His name is Zohran Kwame Mamdani, and though he has not yet won the general election, his recent victory in the Democratic primary for New York City Mayor has captured global attention. It is a victory not just of a candidate, but of a political method rooted in service, authenticity, and daily struggle. And for those of us committed to rebuilding faith in public leadership in Cape Town and across South Africa, Mamdani offers something we've been desperate for: a living example of how to campaign, organise, and inspire from below. His story tells us that people are hungry for leaders who fight for their daily lives not for their careers. It tells us that politics is not dead, trust is. And trust is rebuilt not through slogans, but through presence, performance, and principle But what few South Africans may realise is that Mamdani's story is not just a global one it is deeply interwoven with Cape Town itself. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Cape Town Roots, Global Reach Zohran Mamdani's father is the renowned Ugandan intellectual Professor Mahmood Mamdani, who in the mid-1990s attempted to spearhead a project of intellectual transformation at the University of Cape Town. His effort bold, uncomfortable, and uncompromising was met with such resistance by the university's conservative establishment that it became known in South African academic circles as the "Mamdani Affair". 'The Good Muslim, Bad Muslim' is a must read authored by the Prof. At the time, Zohran was just a young boy, but his family's political courage would shape him. He spent three formative years as a pupil at St George's Grammar School in Little Mowbray between 1996 and 1998 an elite, co-educational school whose motto is Virtute et Valore ('The courage to do what is right'). Now, nearly 30 years later, that motto echoes back across the Atlantic as Zohran attempts to become one of the most progressive mayors in the history of New York City. And we here in Cape Town must pay close attention not because he is one of ours, but because his victory strategy has lessons we urgently need to learn. To us outsiders, New York City may appear as a distant, complex metropolis a cultural capital, a business hub, a symbol of American diversity and dysfunction. But the mayor of New York is not just a municipal executive; it's one of the most powerful local government roles in the world, with jurisdiction over more than 8 million residents, a $110 billion+ annual budget, and responsibilities that touch everything from housing to policing to the subway system The Strategy: Politics of the Ground, Not the Grandstand Unlike the polished centrist campaigns that dominate city elections in the U.S., Mamdani's approach was unapologetically pro people and working-class: • His message focused on bread-and-butter issues: freezing rent, making public transport free and efficient, universal childcare, and public housing. • His volunteer team, over 22,000 strong, knocked on more than 450,000 doors, primarily in low-income and immigrant communities. • He rejected corporate money and instead built a campaign through small-dollar donationsand people-powered logistics. • He communicated across multiple platforms from TikTok explainers on rent control to Instagram reels walking through neglected housing blocks. This wasn't just a campaign it was a civic mobilisation, fusing protest energy with policy clarity. It didn't rely on nostalgia or abstract ideology. It spoke to people's present pain with dignity, and to their aspirations with substance. This reminds me of the 80's slogan : Peoples Action for Peoples Power. He facilitates ordinary peoples agency. His campaign has created political energy in a disengaged electorate that has translated into stronger civic participation. Today the City of Cape Town passes a budget that does not speak to, or represent us. A Mirror for Cape Town: Inequality and the Crisis of Representation Cape Town is not New York. But both cities are profoundly unequal, shaped by histories of racial division, gentrification, and spatial injustice. From the Bronx to Bonteheuwel, the thread of exclusion runs deep. In our city, the Democratic Alliance governs with technical efficiency but moral detachment. It delivers excellent services to a few , but deepens apartheid spatial patterns. It enforces bylaws that criminalise poverty. It pushes market-based solutions where social investment is needed. And crucially, it represents an elite version of governance, not a democratic one. Here in Cape Town, our poor and working-class communities face the same structural burdens like New York: • Rising food prices and transport costs. Unaffordable electricity, rates and tariffs. Cap electricity tariffs for indigent households; • Homelessness, Unaffordable Housing , gentrification, Informal evictions and backyarder neglect; • Water cuts in the poorest wards, while swimming pools in affluent suburbs stay blue. Stop water disconnections; • Violence in vulnerable community, Children and Women are unsafe, Poverty and Despair. How do we build trust again, not just structures? How do we shift from gatekeeping to grassroots mobilisation? Mamdani's success shows that political renewal begins with three fundamentals: 1. Be Tangible and Tactical Cape Town residents don't want vague promises. We want a City: • That works and cares for all of us; • That create safe and secure communities for all of us; • That create decent jobs and opportunities for all of us; • That provides affordable housing, accommodation and basic service for all of us; • That provides affordable rates and service for all of us; • That provides safe reliable affordable public transport; • That provides affordable Early Children Development Centre (crèches); • Councillors who show up, not just show off. Let us train a new generation of councillor candidates who know how to run a ward before they run for office. Let every candidate start with a local manifesto of action fixing five things in their area before the election even arrives. 2. Rebuild the Culture of Organising We must stop complaining, start mobilising and organising. Let's take back and reclaim 'Peoples People through United Peoples Action'. We must stop behaving like a marketing agency and start behaving like a movement again. We must: • Identify and train 100's of youth per sub council, per ward, per VD to become digital and street organisers; • Create, build and maintain neighbourhood watch committees, sanitation brigades, and food solidarity networks; • Use tools like WhatsApp, Google Sheets, and TikTok to track delivery failures, communicate events, and campaign at scale. Like Mamdani, we must knock on thousands of doors not just during voter registration drives, but as a permanent feature of our presence. 3. Have the Courage to Confront Power Mamdani didn't shy away from controversy. He supports Gaza. He marched with delivery and taxi drivers. He challenged corporate landlords. Just like him we must fight injustice here. Too many local politicians in South Africa try to appease everyone. In the process, they stand for no one. We must develop the political maturity to say: • Yes to land redistribution; • No to water and electricity disconnections for the poor; • Yes to universal early childhood development and free sanitation; • No to public-private partnerships that exclude communities. Being a public servant must be just that a servant, not a careerist or contractor. Cape Town Can Lead the New Politics If We're Willing to Change Cape Town was once a cradle of radical thought and transformation. It still can be if we dare to imagine and organise differently. If Zohran Mamdani, shaped partly in our city, can emerge as a champion of grassroots power in the belly of U.S. capitalism, then what excuse do we have? He is not perfect. He has not yet won the mayoralty. But he has already shown us how to bring people back into the political process, not as passive voters but as active builders of their communities. As the school principal of St George's Grammar said in wishing him well, 'The courage to do what is right.' That courage must now guide us too. A Call to Action: Toward a People's Local Government Campaign for 2026 Let me be clear: the 2026 Local Government Elections may be the last chance for progressive politics in South Africa to rebuild its base. To do this, we need: • A People's Candidate School to train servant-leaders across all provinces. • A Ward Delivery Tracker to help communities hold councillors accountable. • A Digital Organising Corps to counter misinformation, amplify our wins, and tell new stories. • And above all, a radical return to the people their streets, their struggles, their voices. Let us in Cape Town not look back in 2026 and wonder what went wrong. Let us look forward now, build boldly, and act with integrity. Let us not only honour Mamdani the candidate but rekindle the revolutionary fire that Cape Town once gave the world. From Astoria to Athlone, the call is clear. Organise. Deliver. Transform. * Faiez Jacobs is a former Member of Parliament, founder of The Transcendence Group, Capetonian, Activist, and Servant of the People. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.
Indian Express
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Author Karen Jennings on her latest novel Crooked Seeds and how social media has impacted our sense of history
You've said that the vision of the lighthouse from An Island (2019) came to you in a dream, during an afternoon nap. What about the story of Crooked Seeds? I'm afraid it was a lot less neat and tidy. In fact, it is hard to trace the process or progression clearly. Some of the ideas or aspects of the characters go back as far as the 1980s, when I was a little girl and overheard a conversation between my dad and his colleague. She told him about growing up, how her mother had always favoured her son and treated her daughters as inferior to him. Other aspects of the novel go to my mid-20s when I passed a ditch being dug by the municipality. Each day, when I passed that ditch, they had dug up more artefacts — nothing interesting, just old handbags and bottles and bits of cutlery and rope and plastic. I remember knowing there was something important here, in this digging, the finding of things. I didn't know what, though. Countless other little experiences and thoughts and dreams made their way into the chaos in my mind and came out (hopefully) neatly on the pages. The South African landscape is almost a character in the novel. Is it at all possible to write about South Africa and Africa without talking about socio-political issues? Can one write about anywhere without including socio-political issues? I am a proud South African. South Africa is my home. I love its people and places. I am not afraid to say it publicly: everything that is good in this country is because of the South African people. For the bad, yes, we can blame history, but we can also blame a government that puts cronyism before the people. Most days, I want to ask our president: How do you sleep at night? Aren't you ashamed of your spinelessness? In the novel, there are also themes of memory, trauma and historical reconciliation. How did you approach post-Apartheid South Africa? A lot of reading. I make sure to read widely when doing research — newspapers, interviews, diaries, letters, fiction, non-fiction. We all understand, of course, that fiction is not meant to be focused on fact-giving. But in order for fiction to have value – in order for it to have an essential authenticity — research must be done. In addition, I spend a lot of time 'in place' — walking, looking, observing. The 17th century Japanese Haiku master Basho said that if you want to write about the tree then you must go to the tree. I believe that completely. Go to the tree — physically and through research. How has the landscape for postcolonial African literature changed since you began writing? This is an interesting question. Recently, someone from a different country in Africa indicated to me that young Africans don't know what colonialism is. It is something 'too far back' in history to be thought of — yet we still see the socio-economic consequences of it to this day; we still see knock-on effects such as cultural appropriation. Whatever the young know or don't know about colonialism or postcolonialism, they don't seem to be learning it from books. A few days ago, I was explaining to a student of mine that the only thing she needed to work on in her essay is to write smoother sentences. She asked me if I could recommend a TikTok channel to help her with that. I said, 'How can you ask me that? What you need to do is read, not watch Tiktok!' An Island and Crooked Seeds have a nonlinear narrative and yet it's effortless to envision the story. Talk us through your writing process. Short answer: agony. Long answer: lots of agony. The very dismal truth is that I write draft after draft after draft, on and on and on and on until I am sick and depressed. But by the end I know my character and my story completely. Your portrayal of marginalised characters has been praised for its nuance. What responsibility do you feel writers have when representing voices that have historically been silenced? This is a tough question. One must always approach one's writing with sensitivity. Even when one comes to it with good intentions, there is always a worry about appropriation or being offensive. Thorough research can help, as can using third-person narrators and avoiding giving characters accents or using patois that can come across as condescending. These are all practical matters. But consider the forgotten people in history — not necessarily heroes, just ordinary people whose role in our country's past and therefore in its present might be forgotten unless you write about them. Last year, I wrote a number of short stories related to slaves and servants at the Cape of Good Hope/Cape Colony in the 18th century. These stories were based on archival and other research. If I don't write about them, will someone else do it? Will AI remember our pasts for us and write about it for us? Already most South Africans don't even know the truth about South Africa's slave past. Shouldn't they know that history and the people it affected and in what ways? May that inspire them too to explore, to research and to write. Mazumdar is a Delhi-based independent writer
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
‘South Africa once excluded black people from land — the state now seeks peaceful reform'
William Beinart is Emeritus Professor at the African Studies Centre, Oxford University. Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke , he discusses the issue of land — and its fruit — in South Africa : As seen at the Donald Trump-Cyril Ramaphosa interaction recently, we are hearing allegations now about white farmers in South Africa being thrown off their lands and even killed — how historically accurate is this? It's an absurd inversion of history. South Africa's history has been about the dispossession of black South Africans from their land, with the Apartheid system ensuring they could not get access to it until the 1990s and the political transformations that took place then. By that time, only a small proportion of land in rural areas was owned by Africans, with most whiteowned farms, which were largely commercial in nature, having workforces almost entirely composed of these people. The new South African government, after the transition post-Apartheid and the move towards democracy, put land reform quite high on its agenda — it was entirely justified in doing so. The system had cemented racial exclusion for so long. They've gone slowly and I'd say they have done reasonably well. The large farm sector has not been destroyed — on the contrary, becoming one of the most rapidly-growing parts of the economy over the last two decades, it has done quite well. The state also instituted a 'willing buyer, willing seller' system of land reform — if the authorities target particular areas, government buys the land from white farmers there. White farmers being thrown off the land is just not the case. Image credit: iStock When Maize is a maze... Apartheid plundered black South Africans — whites, who are 7% of the population, reportedly still own half the country's land, with 30% redistribution aimed at by 2030 In addition, it is important to emphasise that South Africa has been a very violent place for many years, going back to the Apartheid era — this didn't change much post-1994. Rates of murders and violent crimes remain high in urban and rural areas — however, proportionately, the numbers of white farmers attacked or killed is relatively small. The people most susceptible to violent crimes are actually young men in cities. Yet, this narrative has been picked up by the global right-wing and the Trump Presidency for a range of reasons. They are unhappy with the position of the current South African government on many issues — and Elon Musk , who was born and raised until university in South Africa, is plugged into right-wing Afrikaner groups which have become very effective propagandists on a global scale. Musk apparently didn't always take these views — but he's chosen to champion them now, both in the United States and in relation to South Africa. What are some of the main climatic changes South Africa confronts now? Global warming is already having an effect there — even 25 years ago, people had predicted the western half of South Africa, along with much of Botswana and Namibia, would experience significant reductions in rainfall. That seems to be happening now. On the eastern side, particularly across the coastal zones, there is an increased intensity of stormy rainfall — there is already frequent flooding across these regions. South Africa is reasonably fortunate in having had over a century of intensive dam-building — this enables a fair amount of water capture in many places but there is a crisis developing in urban water supply now. It's not just reduced rainfall but a lack of investment driving this. The challenge of water is huge, with 60% of the country being semi-arid and arid. This is a difficult situation also for South Africa's successful commercial agriculture — citrus fruit is a very large product, the single biggest agricultural export today, well beyond wine, wool and older goods. The sector offers a lot of employment and is also very valuable in terms of providing nutrition for poorer people. Growing citrus does need sustained irrigation though — dangers lie thus in this fairly rapid global climate change and there needs to be more effective and coordinated state engagement. One area where the state has been quite successful in association with the private sector is conservation and the beginnings of biodiversity restoration — a significant part of South Africa is now seeing some return to greater biodiversity. This increase in wildlife is also valuiStock able for water retention and the rejuvenation of watersheds. Of course, there is the question of whether work like ecotourism can replace agrarian activity and generate similar revenues — it's important to note this brings highly differentiated benefits, with ecotourism essentially for relatively well-heeled global travellers and its profits tending to reach those who own land already. While he has Trump's ear: Elon Musk supports claims of white South Africans being hounded Can you tell us about your research on South Africa's prickly pear plant? An aspect of environmental history which interests me deeply is political ecology — why are resources important, to whom do they become necessary, how do they get commodified and who wins and loses in this process? Prickly pear is a Mexican plant, found extensively over central America. It's a cactus and suited well to semi-arid areas. It was brought to the Cape as it was to India, the Mediterranean, northeast Africa as well as other places around the world — I've heard you can discern traces of destroyed Palestinian villages by spotting the remnants of prickly pear there. This plant has multiple uses. Firstly, the Opuntia ficus-indica has juicy fruit and blossoms for about three months every year. It doesn't need much water and reproduces by itself, birds spreading its seeds or its leaves dropping to the ground and sending out new roots. It expanded across the semiarid areas of South Africa and it was eaten by both white and black people — but it became particularly important to impoverished black people because they had no land. They were marginalised also by the commercialisation of agriculture and the expansion of private land holdings which was largely controlled by white people. The prickly pear was like a gathered plant — its fruit was eaten and its leaves used for fodder, fencing, etc. It became very important for the rural poor. Image credit: iStock Fruits of change: South Africa's prickly pear (L) & citrus (R) Now, prickly pear also has spines and its fruit has spicules — if commerically valuable animals like sheep eat these, it can be quite damaging. So, a huge eradication program started in the 19th century, reaching maturity in the 20 th century — this managed to get rid of about 90% prickly pear. That story — of this food of poor black people vanishing, while the state and wealthy farmers exterminated it — has intrigued me.
France 24
21-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Hard sell diplomacy? Ramaphosa-Trump sit-down turns testy
Ramaphosa reportedly now offering a workaround of post-Apartheid local Black ownership laws, laws to address historical inequality in a nation where whites make up 7-percent of the population but still own 70 percent of the land. Adding pressure on Donald Trump's visitor, a lie that's even appeared unsollicited on Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot. Grok talking up a supposed genocide against whites in South Africa – a country that's got way too high a homicide rate for sure, but where in reality one percent of the victims are whites. Trump himself talking up the trope and offering refugee status to whites. So how should the nation that currently hosts the rotating chair of the G20 handle its relations with the United States? How should it handle the South African-born Musk who enjoys outsized leverage it seems? And more broadly, what path for a South Africa that needs foreign investment to fulfill its potential?
