Photo source: Financial Times By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront T he anarchy and political inaction in South Africa in July 2021 for just over a week changed the rainbow nation. More than three hundred people were killed, and countless were injured. The magnanimity of the protests kept its establishment, its police and intelligence clueless. Several companies reported that more than thousand vendors had been pillaged. Dozens of fast-food restaurants mostly across KwaZulu-Natal, a stronghold of Former President Jacob Zuma, and Gauteng were destroyed as well. Goods worth between $400 million and $1 billion had been stolen or destroyed, according some initial industry estimates. The infrastructure of malls, shopping centres, and liquor outlets, was damaged. Trucks were burned and livestock was killed.  Dozens of factories producing food and medicine were looted as well. Combined with attacks on clinics, hundreds of thousands suffering chronic conditions were left without medicati...

By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Economic disparities and corruption often make masses revolt, and South Africa, the so‑called rainbow nation, became the most recent country where public protests regained their course in April 2017. Since 2009, more than thirteen notable protests had rattled the country, reflecting a growing disillusionment with the ruling African National Congress. The ANC, a 105‑year‑old political party once chaired by Nelson Mandela, was facing internal revolts that threatened to fracture the organisation which had dominated the political scene since the end of apartheid in 1994. As Al Jazeera reported at the time, tens of thousands of South Africans poured into the streets in the largest demonstrations in years, demanding accountability and change. President Jacob Zuma’s decision to reshuffle twenty ministers, many of whom were regarded as competent, and replace them with personal loyalists without party consultation, triggered outrage. Opposition members d...