The African National Congress (ANC), now celebrating the 110th anniversary of its founding, is the oldest liberation movement in Africa. Two decades ago, the party was still lauded for leading one of the world’s most successful struggles for democracy. Today it has transformed into a morass of gross venality, chauvinism, infighting, and misgovernment.

Nothing quite sums up the state of South Africa like the charred ruins that was, until a fire broke out last year, the country’s parliament building; not only has it yet to be rebuilt, but we still have no real idea of what happened. This followed July 2021’s insurrection in which supporters of former president Jacob Zuma, mafiosos, rogue intelligence, and police unleashed the worst violence since the country’s return to democracy in 1994, leaving over 350 dead and billions of dollars of damage to vital economic infrastructure.

Blackouts of ten hours a day are now normal in South Africa, and many of the country’s cities, including its economic capital, Johannesburg, increasingly face water outages.