The party of Nelson Mandela is imploding

Londiwe Mkhize walks through her unfinished home in Cato Crest, a poor part of Durban, South Africa’s third-largest city. Concrete blocks lie wet from the rain that has fallen through roofless rooms. Completing the half-built house was the task of her husband, Siyabonga Mkhize. But he was shot dead in October 2021 when out campaigning to be a councillor for the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s ruling party. It was too late to take his name off the ballot, so he was posthumously elected. In March the by-election to find a living replacement was won by another ANC candidate, Mzi Ngiba. Two months later Mr Ngiba was one of four people arrested for his predecessor’s murder. (All deny the charges.) “He was a kind person,” says Ms Mkhize of her husband. “But he was murdered for his choice of becoming an ANC politician.”