Christine Botha on the lack of a proper relationship between voters and their MPs

Kimera Chetty writes petitions to Parliament are substantially weightier than just an indicator of popular support or lack thereof

Daniel Silke says in South Africa state power entrenches electoral success

RW Johnson says the official opposition continues to blunder about after its electoral setback

Carien Bloem says mother-tongue education is the solution, not the problem

Frank Durand says the party gained nothing, and now risks losing everything, by betraying its non-racial roots

Theuns Eloff says there is more than a 60% chance that President will be able to appoint a fairly good executive

John Kane-Berman says the opposition dismisses the challenge now posed by the FF Plus at its own peril

William Saunderson-Meyer writes on the predicament of the official opposition

Andrew Donaldson writes on Fergal Keane's unexpectedly good BBC Four documentary