Aubrey Matshiqi
Aubrey Matshiqi, Independent Political Analyst - matshiqi@yahoo.com
South Africa in 2015
16th January 2015 The 2015 political calendar looks very interesting indeed. This is the year of the National General Council (NGC) of the ruling African National... →
The DA – boon or bane for SA democracy?
14th November 2014 Is the Democratic Alliance (DA) a blessing or a curse to our democracy? Five years ago, the DA went to court to challenge the decision of the... →
First salvos fired in ANC leadership battles
17th October 2014 The elective national conference of the African National Congress (ANC) is still three years away but, if the deliberations at the Gauteng... →
Spy tapes ruling opens Pandora’s box
12th September 2014 Democratic alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille, in response to the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to grant the party access to the... →
The EFF's dual character
6th August 2014 Where do the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) come from, and where are they going? In the lead-up to the 1949 national conference of the African... →
SA on brink of economic crisis despite assurances
11th July 2014 Is the South African economy on the brink of disaster? Or, to put it differently, is South Africa itself on the brink of disaster? Last month,... →
SA should elect a future that foregrounds the greater good
17th June 2014 As they usually say after an election, the people have spoken. The question is: What did they say? In my estimation, what we understood them to be... →
SA should elect a future that foregrounds the greater good
10th June 2014 As they usually say after an election, the people have spoken. The question is: What did they say? In my estimation, what we understood them to be... →
Reflections on 2014 elections
23rd May 2014 The 2014 general election is, in terms of the results, most probably the most interesting to decode since the advent of democracy in 1994. While... →
Moral, ethical issues not major issues for ANC voters despite Nkandlagate
22nd April 2014 There is no issue or factor that, on its own, will determine whether the African National Congress (ANC) gains or loses support in the May... →
Promises, promises . . .
13th March 2014 Critical and strategic national conversations seldom occur during an election year, and this year is not going to be an exception. As evidenced by... →
DA-Agang fiasco damaged opposition politics
14th February 2014 The United Party was the ruling party of South Africa from 1934 to 1948, when the National Party came to power. The National Party was in power for... →
Zuma booing an indication of citizens’ unhappiness
17th January 2014 At the memorial service for Nelson Mandela last month, President Jacob Zuma was jeered, booed and heckled by some sections of the crowd in front of... →
Ruling alliance a mess as ANC loses plot
13th December 2013 A year ago, the African National Congress (ANC) held its centenary national conference in Mangaung, where President Jacob Zuma won the battle for... →
Race and the 2014 election
15th November 2013 Because of apartheid and colonialism, race was the main social contradiction before the democratic breakthrough of 1994. As we approach the 2014... →
Gauteng ANC calling on Mbeki to be Zuma’s cheerleader, flower girl
11th October 2013 According to newspaper reports, the African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng would like former President Thabo Mbeki to join the 2014 election... →
Reflections on 2014 elections
19th September 2013 In the 2009 general election, the African National Congress (ANC) won 11 650 748 votes (65.9% of the vote) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) won 2... →
Tsvangirai’s ineptitude contributed to Zanu-PF electoral win
14th August 2013 The Southern African Development Community (SADC) thought it was too early, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its leader, Morgan... →
Mandela should not be seen as a commodity
12th July 2013 To whom does Nelson Mandela belong? Who owns him?By way of answering this question, let me start with a trite remark: If Mandela were an ordinary... →
Perfect storm of economic, political developments is avoidable
12th June 2013 Worries about the current economic situation and the possibility of more instability in the mining sector must be understood in terms of the... →
Guptagate reignites concerns about national security
13th May 2013 It was with a sense of irritation that many South Africans greeted the news of the unauthorised landing at the Waterkloof air force base of a... →
CAR incident highlights importance of trust between govt, citizens
10th April 2013 There is one thing that governments all over the world, democratic and undemocratic, have in common: they all seem to think that foreign policy is... →
Ramphele's Agang under the spotlight
8th March 2013 In February, Mamphela Ramphele, a former black consciousness activist, University of Cape Town Vice-Chancellor and World Bank managing director,... →
SA needs qualitatively different political, economic system
12th February 2013 In the months leading up to the election of Jacob Zuma as head of state in 2009, there was a lot of concern about his ability to govern a modern... →
Mangaung a bit of a damp squib, but not uninteresting
18th January 2013 The Mangaung conference of the African National Congress (ANC) has come and gone. Will the lot of the ordinary South African be better or worse,... →
Role of factionalism in lead-up to Mangaung
12th December 2012 Essop Pahad, an African National Congress (ANC) luminary and former Minister in the Presidency during the reign of Thabo Mbeki, says that all... →
Motlanthe reticence pointing to Zuma re-election at Mangaung
16th November 2012 We are now a month away from the Mangaung national conference of the African National Congress (ANC) and, at the time of writing, it is still not... →
Race for ANC top job set to excite popular imagination
18th October 2012 The African National Congress (ANC) leadership nomination process is finally upon us. Members of the ANC have until November 26 to nominate their... →
Marikana tragedy may well be turning point in battle for ANC presidency
14th September 2012 Is the Marikana tragedy a turning point in the battle for the presidency of the African National Congress (ANC)? Specifically, is the tragedy a... →
Lead-up to Mangaung exciting South Africa’s popular imagination
17th August 2012 In October, if things go according to schedule, the African National Congress (ANC) will officially start the leadership nominations process, two... →
No radicalism in ANC policy proposals
13th July 2012 The national policy conference of the African National Congress (ANC) has come and gone. What should we make of the policy proposals that were... →
Reflections on The Spear saga
15th June 2012 It is 23:54. Two-and-a-half hours ago, I arrived from the University of Cape Town (UCT), where I was part of a panel discussion on the... →
Criminalisation of the State
11th May 2012 Last month, not for the first time, I wrote in another publication about what I call the ‘deep state’. In the article, I explained that the deep... →
SA's leadership crisis reaches beyond the political crisis
12th April 2012 How is the decision to suspend African National Congress (ANC) Youth League president, Julius Malema, on top of the decision to expel him, going to... →
The Second Transition: The procedural and substantive gap of the post-Apartheid order
14th March 2012 Political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi speaks about a second transition advocated in the ruling ANC policy documents. →
Youth League now unlikely to influence ANC leadership, policy battles
27th February 2012 With the appeals committee having upheld Malema’s conviction by the disciplinary committee of the ANC on charges of bringing the party into... →
China not the only threat to democracy
20th January 2012 In 2010, I spent a month at the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies (STIAS) as a research fellow. →
The Jacob Zuma moment
9th December 2011 In 2012, the focus will be on policy and leadership battles in the African National Congress (ANC). But, something seems to be happening in... →
Our foreign policy must err on the side of democracy, human rights
11th November 2011 Is a democratic Libya going to rise from the ashes of Muamuar Gaddafi, or is the manner in which he was killed a harbinger of things to come? →
Economic freedom in our lifetime
12th October 2011 A few months ago, Archbishop Desmond Tutu proposed that white people should pay a wealth tax because they benefitted from apartheid. Identifying... →
Malema and ANC policy, leadership battles
16th September 2011 The outcome of policy and leadership battles at the centenary conference of the African National Congress (ANC) in December 2012 will be shaped by... →
