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1994 electionslatest news & developments
In for a penny: South African musician and politician Papa Penny and Zuma, founder of uMkhonto weSizwe, at the party’s rally at Orlando Stadium in Soweto last weekend. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

DJ Mahoota: The rise of ‘Come Duze’ and the intersection of music and politics in South Africa

Artists’ alignment has evolved since 1994, reflecting changing dynamics in politics

Presidential candidate Thabo Mbeki waves to supporters while campaigning near Cape Town, South Africa. | Location: near Cape Town, South Africa.  (Photo by © Louise Gubb/CORBIS SABA/Corbis via Getty Images)

FROM THE ARCHIVES | 1999 elections: Weighty win a comfort or a threat?

The size of the ANC’s electoral victory need not be an issue of burning concern

Knife edge: Voters sing while they wait to make their crosses at a voting station on 27 April 1994 in Lindelani, in what was then Natal. (Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Image)

30 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY: The 1994 elections had no mapping, no voters roll, but lots of goodwill

The first democratic election was touch and go until six days before the 27 April 1994 poll

Cycles of history: An Indian family in Natal circa 1888. The indentured labour Indian people were subjected to at the time was a form of slavery, which, together with colonialism, greatly influenced the construction of apartheid. (The Collections Library of the South African parliament)

An outsider’s perspective of South Africa’s revolutionary democracy

As Freedom Day approaches, an American reflects on how our history has become his too

Leader of the DA’s federal executive council, Helen Zille. (David Harrison/M&G)

Party’s woes signify historical dilemma of South Africa’s liberals

The Democratic Alliance’s problems can be traced back to the politicisation of race, which has persisted even after the dawn of democracy in 1994

Beyond elections, active citizenship is needed. Voting is just one way to take responsibility for the outcomes of our democracy. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

SA youth plan to skip vote 25 years after freedom

More than half of 18-30 year olds not registered to vote

Twenty-five years ago,  South Africa went to the polls in elections that would bring Nelson Mandela to power. (Walter Dhladla/AFP)

South Africa 25: The day the state was no longer an enemy of the people

Remembering South Africa’s first democratic elections: It’s easy to forget that things could have turned out very differently in South Africa

Demise of the Black Consciousness Movement: The once-mighty movement has died — but there’s a flicker of its re-emergence in the sociocultural realm.

This June 16, remember the Black Consciousness movement – and mourn its tragic demise

It’s hard to ignore the tragic demise of a movement that held and had so much meaning and potential.

Shack of shame: Tambo Sealanyane was scarred by the ordeal of witnessing his father – a member of the National Party – being stoned to death on the street outside the family’s home in 1994.

Elections 2014: ‘Dad was on the wrong side’

A young man says the peaceful election in his home town of Tumahole near Parys means his father did not die in vain in 1994.

Long Walk to Freedom is still popular.

Election craze: Top five politically related products online

From EFF berets to ballot papers from the 1994 elections, here are online store Gumtree.co.za’s top items being bought ahead of the polls.

Five Lives at Noon by Brent Meersman.

Meersman’s follow-up novel is history come alive

The novel, Five Lives at Noon provides a detailed account of the events that led to the demise of legislated apartheid.

An imperfect delivery

Peter Harris’s latest book gives ample anecdotal content about SA’s first democratic election, but lacks critique.

There will be blood

MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Shaun de Waal reviews <i>Triomf</i> and adaptation from a novel of the same name by Marlene van Niekerk.

‘Snot en trane’

Lionel Newton, who plays Treppie in the much-anticipated screen adaptation of <i>Triomf</i>, speaks to Jeremy Kuper about the film.

It was the prospect of power sharing between barely reconciled ideological and moral enemies that confounded the people. (Photo  Louise Gubb/CORBIS SABA/Corbis via Getty Images)

Clash of the television titans

Thursday’s TV debate between South Africa’s two leading statesmen promises to be a psychological drama revealing much about how they are going to rule the country together.