Political assassinations in South Africa have become a feature sustained by corruption, infighting and the "ruling party’s hegemony".
Nationalism on its own offers no guarantee of a democratic or progressive politics.
The policy documents that the ANC has drawn up in advance of its policy conference are, to say the least, uneven, writes Richard Pithouse.
Every great city, from ancient Rome to New York, was, at some point, ringed by shacks. Today, about one billion people live in shacks and the number is growing rapidly. In South Africa it is often confidently asserted that shack settlements are an apartheid hang-over that will soon pass.