Jane Duncan

I am interested in this question from a surveillance and intelligence perspective.

South Africa is emerging from the most severe spate of xenophobic attacks since 2008, although the attacks have never really stopped. What lessons need to be learned from the latest attacks, and what needs to be done to prevent similar attacks from taking place in the future?

In the broader scheme of things, how significant are the recent waves of protest that have engulfed South Africa over the past decade?

How important are leaders to South Africa’s politics? Should they be allowed to make or break organisations?

In the past few weeks, the South African media has been dominated by the unfolding catastrophe in Gaza and South Africans have had to rely largely on foreign coverage of this issue to understand it.

Mauritius is known to South Africans mainly as a holiday destination, brimming with idyllic beaches, luxurious hotels and stunning scenery. However, there are other, less well-known ties that bind the two countries together.

For decades, the ANC has represented the concretisation of significant transformation gains for many South Africans and because of this, mass support for the party has had a rational and objective basis. But this basis is being eroded.

The Commission of Enquiry headed by retired judge Ian Farlam into the deaths in August of approximately 44 people at Marikana and the injury and arrest of scores more has not got off to a good start.

Over the past ten years, the government has developed a complex web of controls that has made Internet censorship much more possible. Many legislative measures lie dormant, only to emerge when they are needed to curb controversial content.

Public demonstrations have been central to South Africa’s democratic life for decades. Yet recent events suggest a narrowing of the substance of the right to assemble, demonstrate and picket and a de-legitimisation of street politics.