By Felicity Duncan
The Guardian, a prominent UK newspaper, published a letter calling for Britain to send election observers to South Africa for next year’s national election. Citing reports of rising political violence, Martin Plaut, a senior research fellow at the University of London, wrote, “It is vitally important that the international community, which did so much to support South Africa’s democracy during the dark days of apartheid, acts without delay to ensure that next year’s national election is free and fair.”
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Quite frankly, given the current state of British politics, the fragility of its current government, and the slow-moving train wreck of the UK’s Brexit negotiations, it seems like the Brits may have other things to do early next year (deal with the fallout from the UK crashing out of the EU with no deal, for example).
Nevertheless, Plaut cites the Independent Election Commission’s warning that there is a correlation between electoral and political competition that “impairs the public’s willingness to engage with democracy”, and that the “underlying causes of the murder of politicians are potentially present in all provinces”. And that’s a fair point.
In Premium today, you can listen to the newest episode of The Editor’s Desk – Alec Hogg and I dig into the latest developments at Steinhoff, Nenegate, and Elon Musk’s latest idiotic tweet. You can read Alec Hogg’s account of the events at Steinhoff’s US subsidiary Mattress Factory and you can read about Bain & Co’s relationship with the Zuptas. You can also read about the $1.4m artwork that shredded itself as soon as it was sold.
