Against the Tide by Steven Friedman

The constitutional court has decided that candidates can contest elections if they gather the signatures of only a few voters. But candidates still need to pay a sizeable deposit to stand. This gets it the wrong way round. We need to make sure that candidates show real voter support if they want to stand - however small their bank balance is.

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Steven Friedman is a public commentator and an academic, currently employed as a Research Professor at the University of Johannesburg. He has been writing on South African politics for the entire democratic period both as a scholar and public commentator. He has published books on South Africa’s transition to democracy, the role of the trade union movement, and current South African politics. He has also written columns and articles for several South African newspapers. His writing seeks to use academic research to shed light on current politics but to ensure that this is conveyed in a way easily understood by people who have no academic training.