​On October 28th, Tanzania will choose a president and members of the country’s National Assembly. This year, few observers expect a fair vote, given incumbent President John Magufuli and his government’s weaponization of the law.

Jacob Zuma (L), leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), chats with Julius Malema, president of African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), at the Pietermaritzburg high co…

Derek Hanekom (C), head of the ANC disciplinary panel, announces the verdict for Youth League leader Julius Malema at the party's head quarters in Johannesburg, November 10, 2011. (Siphewe Sibeko/Cou…

On August 21, South Africa’s Equality Court ruled that gratuitous displays of the Apartheid-era flag counted as hate speech and discrimination. Confronting history head on, Judge Phineas Mojapelo wrote in his ruling that the flag represents “a vivid symbol of white supremacy and black disenfranchisement and suppression,” and flying it, “besides being racist and discriminatory, demonstrates a clear intention to be hurtful.” 

In the run-up to the elections, the BBC has done a service by presenting statistical data on how South Africa has changed since 1994. The data is drawn from Stats SA, the official statistics office, and think tanks. South African statistics, official and non-official, are credible. The BBC’s selection of statistics shows greater social progress since the end of apartheid than the current political debate would indicate, but that poverty remains mostly black and coloured. (Coloureds often regard themselves as a separate race, not of mixed race.)