analysisStillborn freeLike a corpse tethered by battery chargers to a failing coal plant, South Africans lurch toward the 2021 municipal elections powered by nothing more than impulse. Democracy, if that is indeed a real word, has been hollowed out by over a decade of state-sponsored mega violence, self-imposed austerity, weapons-grade incompetence, craven corruption and Carl Niehaus. That said, while these are the second-last elections, we will almost certainly enact election cycle pageantry during whatever version of illiberalism South Africa innovates in the next decade or so. It's just that the elections of the future won't matter at all--they'll be show trials for lousy ideas crafted by an increasingly inept array of second-rate autocrats. This is, of course, not a polite observation in a country where thousands died for the right...

Source: The North Africa Journal October 31, 2021 09:43 UTC