Time can be cruel. Infatuations and honeymoons must reach their end. Emotions subside, our better selves fall, exhausted, by the wayside, and deeper character traits will out. A truly democratic South Africa, a ‘rainbow nation’, …
Articles by: "Stuart Doran"
It’s been so bad that it has even flickered across Western screens recently as one of those brief human-interest stories. The lights have gone out in South Africa. Eskom, the state-owned power utility, has imposed …
‘I can’t wait until these stupid elections are over and we can just get on with our lives.’ Those were the words of a Zimbabwean acquaintance—and they reflect the attitude of many, perhaps the majority, …
The world has forgotten about Zimbabwe. Few outsiders know, or would care, that the country is due to hold elections this month. And that’s among those who could point to it on a map. For …
Journalists and policy analysts should spend more time reading history. If they did, they would be better placed to challenge the diplomats and politicians who casually requisition the past in order to lay claim to …
Elizabeth II may have had her annus horribilis in the early 1990s, but she would—in the minds of many South Africans, at least—be thought to have escaped lightly. The ‘rainbow nation’ went to the polls …
It’s like watching a drunken sailor go down in increments. A stumble, a forehead to the counter, a wild grasping, followed by a crash of bottles. That’s the trajectory of Zimbabwe’s post-Mugabe ‘new dispensation’—all in …
Editors’ picks for 2018: ‘South Africa in crisis (part 3): failure will impact Africa and the world’
Originally published 3 October 2018. Whether South Africa is teetering or slowly crumbling is moot. But one thing’s clear: the country faces a raft of intersecting crises that it is ill-equipped to solve. And the …
A year on from the coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe remains perched between piecemeal reform and old ways that are as intractable as they are destructive. That’s because the country is ruled by a …
Whether South Africa is teetering or slowly crumbling is moot. But one thing’s clear: the country faces a raft of intersecting crises that it is ill-equipped to solve. And the world’s inattention doesn’t mean it’s …
The bad news for South Africa just keeps getting worse. The latest macroeconomic figures show that GDP shrank for the second quarter in a row, meaning the country has technically entered a recession for the …
Focused on big events and inconsequential forms of entertainment, the West’s news media have never been good at reading international trends—still less in this age of presidential tweets and micro attention spans. And Africa fares …