and critically important country is facing a new reckoning with pivotal elections. it's not the only country to go to the ballot box in 202a. gunfire amid a surge of military takeovers, worsening security and greater repression, nearly a third of african nations are heading to the polls. voting is the one thing that can recreate a sense of hope amongst us as south africans. i'm nomsa maseko and i'm the bbc�*s southern africa correspondent. i was born here in the rainbow nation and i want to find out where 30 years of democracy has left south africa and, in this bumper election year, where democracy is headed

across the world's fastest—growing continent. # na—na—na—na—na—na. crowd: na-na-na-na-na. # na—na—na—na—na—na. na—na—na—na—na—na. # shosholoza. # shosholoza! still proudly and loudly celebrated today, south africa's transition to democracy was the culmination of decades of resistance and armed struggle against nearly 50 years of racist and violent white minority rule. south africa's first multiracial elections were an extraordinary moment for the world, but especially for the previously disenfranchised black majority. many of us remain invested in south africa because it was

the beginning of the future for africa, it was the beginning of the after, so the last stand of colonisation on the continent and the beginning of the after, for better or worse. on the 27th of april in 1994, i came to this polling station with my mother. we started queuing from 6am, filled with both hope and anxiety. i was too young to vote back then but i saw what it meant for black south africans to be free, finally, to choose their own government. many people were brought here by bus because other polling stations were so full. the queues snaked right beyond that bend and also in the other direction. thousands of black people lined up with their fists in the air, chanting "sikhululekile" — "we are free" — and i understood that now i was, too.

i can tell you without a shadow of doubt that there are people who would think that our transition from apartheid to democracy is one of the seven wonders of the world. ezra singapi has freelanced with the bbcjohannesburg bureau for nearly 30 years. on the election day that swept the once—banned african national congress — the anc — to power and nelson mandela to the presidency, he voted for the first time in his life here in soweto. what did it feel like for you when you voted? when i put my ballot paper, it was like, "i'm taking a load "of concrete from my shoulders" because i was feeling this is going to be different in my life and in the future of my children. that day was like somebody has been born again. i'm glad i voted here

in 1994 at the age of 39. reporter: all over south africa, anc supporters - celebrated well into the night. the anc liberation movement turned political party won by a landslide. 30 years later, it is still in power. joyful singing. i think south africa at 30 and our democracy at 30, as we come into this moment, it's an opportunity for us to ask, "have we really broken away from our colonial "and apartheid past? " singing. the early years were highly promising. a progressive and celebrated constitution enshrined the rights of all citizens. thabo mbeki replaced mandela as president in further democratic elections. civil society flourished, as did a vocal and free press.

the i990s and early 2000s also saw the fall of many authoritarian regimes across africa. hello, hello! please remain seated! various multiparty elections were held. some brought change, but not all were free and fair, and wider democratic gains didn't last for long. we saw really great progress in africa since 1990, especially after the end of the cold war, when superpowers stopped co—opting clients and started to pay more attention to human rights and democracy, etc. but, unfortunately, that progress started to halt and started to decline, according to our data.

democracy in africa is challenged right now. we see a significant decline in the quality of democracy across the continent. but it's also true that we see positive stories every year as well as negative stories. the actual diversity in terms of the quality of democracy is getting bigger, rather than getting smaller. gunfire. in other words, we're getting a continent that has countries that are getting towards being real strong democracies and countries that are so far away from democracy they haven't really moved since the 1990s. communal violence in the years right before the 1994 vote almost derailed south africa's own transition to democracy, provoked by fault lines that are again brewing below the surface. in the �*90s, two black organisations — the predominantly zulu inkatha freedom party and the anc — were in open conflict over the most productive tactics for opposing apartheid.

just from that corner to this corner, you'll be very lucky to reach this corner. by the filling station... 7 yeah, by the filling station. you'll be very lucky. wow. in thokoza township, east ofjohannesburg, i met men who risked their lives for the anc during south africa's fractured transition over 30 years ago. i asked them whether those risks were worth it. i would say yes. it's the freedom that we fought for. so, yes, it was — it was of benefit in the end. here we are, you and i, sitting here. we wouldn't be sitting here today. would you say this is the freedom you fought for? basically, this is not the freedom we fought for. they've used most of us and we've been promised empty promises until now. there was an expectation when the apartheid orderi was ousted that there would be| equality, there would be human dignity but, unfortunately, that has not materialised i for the majority of the people.

of course, there have been changes — it would be sillyl for anyone to suggest - that there has been no change. as long as there is no. transition economically for people, as long as it remains the reality- of south africa that we have - become the most unequal society in the world — notjustl in africa, in the world — then, that must be a powder keg. - key reminders of the hard—fought struggle for liberation are everywhere in this part of soweto. here in kliptown in 1955, on this spot, known as freedom square, thousands of activists adopted the freedom charter. it set the vision for a democratic and united south africa, as well as principles for the anti—apartheid

struggle. a cappella singing. over time, a democratic tourism industry has developed from soweto's rich political history. a young nelson mandela once lived on this street — in fact, in this house right here. the images of the 1976 uprising by soweto schoolchildren and its violent repression in this neighbourhood forced the world into isolating the apartheid regime. but those democratic dividends don't spread far beyond the area around vilakazi street. just a ten—minute drive away is a very different soweto to the one that most tourists see. here, 70 years later on from the adoption of the freedom charter, i meet young mothers still struggling to get by.

these women's stories reflect a much wider truth in south africa today — that division is now often between the haves and the have—nots. it's very much clear that people don't feel like we've fundamentally changed the architecture of our country and so, there are some glaring things that you can see about the country that are still very similar. we know that the inequality is now notjust racialised in terms of black and white in the way that apartheid legally created it to be, but you still have amongst black populations high levels of inequality in terms of access to economic opportunities, jobs. it's also a hardening divide that i've seen elsewhere in africa, particularly

as the rising cost of living continues to cripple the poor. africa is a rich continent. we are ten times the size of india, three times the size of china, with much more resources than either of them, same number of people. why africans are poor? that has to change. only african people will be able to change that, and the way to change that is really by having better rule, better governance and better leadership. we see great correlation between transparency or lack of corruption and economic growth. it's a crime scene. terrible. too many people were lost there. south africa might well be known for its crime but in its democratic era, it has largely avoided political violence. singing.

in 2021, however, major riots in kwazulu—natal — the political heartland of disgraced former president jacob zuma — led to more than 300 deaths and brought the region to a standstill. hundreds of businesses were looted and thousands ofjobs lost in south africa's worst violence since 1994. cameraman thuthuka zondi and i witnessed the unfolding chaos, allegedly triggered by zuma's political allies after he was jailed for refusing to testify at a panel which was investigating corruption during his presidency. it showed that there's a thin divide between what today is a peaceful, controlled surface and the violence that the fault lines... gunfire. ..may allow to break.

it was lawlessness which pointed out at the socioeconomic conditions that sometimes lead people to violent action. battered by the covid—19 pandemic, south africa's economy was already underperforming with low growth and high unemployment of nearly 35%. millions of south africans rely on the government's expensive welfare payments to the most vulnerable — payments that were boosted in the last pre—election budget. it's a multibillion—dollar bill that many other african countries can't afford and that south africa itself is struggling to pay. the global economy is in a tough place and african countries are very dependent on international trade to make up their balance of payments, but also borrowing. borrowing is a big part of many budgets across the continent and so, when the cost

of borrowing goes up, it makes everything more expensive downstream. it creates this political situation where people feel stuck by the economic choices that are available to them. a recent study found a dip in confidence among young africans in the continent's direction, where 70% of the population is under the age of 30. it could be a reason why there's rising popular support for military takeovers, which have been making headlines recently. since 2021, we've seen eight coups, mostly concentrated in west africa. there's a number of factors that i think make them more likely. one is basically having a weaker state and a weaker government. they're also often happening in countries that are struggling economically, so people are frustrated and angry at the government's inability to provide.

but they're also often taking place in countries that are failing democratically. singing. if you are 18 years old and all you've ever seen is there is no public school, there is no healthcare, there is no university education, there are nojobs and here comes this fellow young person who is pushing and trying and making things possible even in a small way, it's very easy to see that as a promise of something more. gunfire. panicked shouting. we see this with all of these military regimes. one of the first things that they do is sell this illusion of order. they go and they threaten and they cajole different institutions of government that are seen to be failing to change their behaviour, to start to deliver on public goods. of course, the problem is that force can only work for so long. after a while, people become disillusioned by the whole thing.

people across africa are also growing increasingly disillusioned with foreign influence over their politics, especially from former colonial powers. colonial rule created quite a poisonous legacy for post—colonial african governments. so, one of the things we've seen in the last couple of years is really growing resentment in former french colonies that france has allied with authoritarian governments over many, many years, and people in a lot of those former french colonies now feel that france effectively helped to sustain governments that were exploitative and didn't actually do what the people wanted. in south africa, 82—year—old former president zuma is leaning into voters' discontent, calling on them to ditch his old party,

the anc, now led by his successor, cyril ramaphosa. crowd chants: zuma! zuma's clout and possibly even his candidacy behind the newly formed umkhonto we sizwe party — controversially named after the anc�*s former armed wing — could make it a political wild card in this year's election. meanwhile, other established opposition parties are capitalising on voter frustration in an attempt to break the anc�*s parliamentary majority for the first time in three decades. in zuma's volatile home province, kwazulu—natal, that frustration continues to rise. tannoy: ladies and gentlemen, welcome to king shaka _ international airport. i travelled back to durban with bbc cameraman and local thuthuka zondi to find out more. i moved to durban to make my name as a news cameraman. it would have not been possible if it wasn't for a democratic

south africa. durban currently is totally different from when i first moved here. when you drive through now, there is a lot of buildings that are not well taken care of, it's dirty. it's actually sad to see. violence between competing interests is on the rise here. contract killings, often carried out by hitmen to settle business or political scores, happen more frequently in this province than any other. abahlali basemjondolo, a grassroots network representing the urban poor, says unemployment, poverty and inequality are worse today than in 1994. but the movement's vocal stance puts its people in the firing line. abahlali's george bonono invited me to a land occupation on the outskirts of durban, where residents have been targeted for eviction.

george regularly receives death threats. he told me that 24 of the movement's leaders in the province have been assassinated over the past 15 years. three of those killings happened right here, just in 2022. the country is going to celebrate the 30 years is a disgrace for people of south africa. that we have wasted 30 years of our time voting for people who really don't care about the poor people. look at the leaders of our government. you can never sit at home and finish the news without seeing any leader not appearing in court for corruption charges. today, democracy in south africa is at a crossroads. at the minute, the institutions of democracy — the electoral commission, for example — still hold relatively firm. but underneath that, we have a state that is rotten with corruption

and patrimonialism. we are giving democracy a bad name by having really poor - developmental outcomes - in a democracy that's praised around the world, that's lauded around the world for a great - constitution, for changing hands of presidents, - institutions that function like the judiciary. - the pressure is quite low, which means that the water will be shut off. in durban, community activist alice govender told me about the city's crumbling public service. so, many people have gone without water and electricity for days, if not months. south africans have endured rolling electricity blackouts for many years, and water scarcity is increasingly becoming a problem. what i'm seeing is the desperation of the people, the absolute desperation. and we've had people die in our community because of not having water, not having electricity.

singing. the service delivery crisis extends in all directions, including into the public healthcare system, where hundreds of doctors can't find work. 30 years of democracy for me has afforded me the opportunity to be a coloured female medical doctor and the first generation medical doctor in my family. it's also highlighted a very sad reality in south africa. the people of south africa are in dire need of healthcare, yet we have a collapsing healthcare system, and that's why we have unemployed doctors. sometimes described as the protest capital of the world, south africa often records dozens of protests or more every month. that is a shockingly high number of protests and, yes, that shows that we have a robust democracy where people still feel like they can protest, but the fact is that that also shows that there's a lot to protest about. but while turnout at the last

election was the lowest since 1994, many south africans, like mumtaaz, believe deeply in the power of the ballot box. voting is the one thing that can recreate a sense of hope amongst us as south africans. i feel like it's the only thing that can recreate that hope. i feel like voting was the one thing that instilled hope into south africa and it can still be that one thing that instils hope back into south africa. injohannesburg, the constitution hill memorial celebrates our democratic transition and its firmest foundation — our institutions. piers pigou worked here with the south african history archive. we have a tendency on the continent to sort of pile our democracies or top—load our democracies with politicians, as opposed to

institutions and the rule book. now, i'm not saying we're getting that right but we have, within this kind of messy picture here in south africa, we have some examples of excellence, we have some examples of real strength. ourjudiciary remains the most robust on the continent. our media is strong. it's been independent, been pushing back. and civil society as well. that triumvirate is important but it's a commitment from that triumvirate to institutional integrity of the state — building institutions that are accountable — and i think that's the lesson for africa. we must take an onus and a responsibility on ourselves as south africa to make this democracy work not only for our own sake but for the sake of lifting the continent and bringing the continent's citizens into a position where democracy works for all of us. i think gone are the days where we can just cut and paste democratic practices around the world and hope that they work. we need to start doing the work as a continent to find out

what form of democracy is going to work best for us and then, actually make it work, and south africa needs to lead that. bayethe by guguletu and langa gospel choir plays. leading a continent of 54 countries, each at a very different stage in their own long walks of democracy, might be a tall order for south africa in its current circumstances but in the words of the father of our democratic nation... nelson mandela: given the interdependence - of the nations of the world, what is it that we can and must do to ensure that democracy, peace and prosperity prevail everywhere? bayethe by guguletu and langa gospel choir plays.

hello there. the weather at this time of the year really can be very fickle, as we've seen over the past week, and during the bank holiday weekend, it's going to be a mixture, really, where there'll be some sunshine at times. there'll also be some heavy showers. it could be quite warm but we're not going to reach the high temperatures that we've seen in the past few days. take you back to thursday and all four home nations had their warmest day of the year and we maintain those sort of temperatures in western scotland and northern ireland on friday. but for suffolk and north wales, it was much colder because of cloud and rain. that's moving its way a little bit further north but we've got some more rain to come on saturday across northern ireland. some heavy showers pushing across scotland may turn a bit drier in north wales and northern england but still a lot of cloud. to the south, though, we'll see some sunshine after a chilly start. a few showers developing in the south east of england. but in the sunshine

across midlands, southern england, south wales, east anglia, it's going to be a warm day —16, 17 degrees. we could reach 19 in the northwest of scotland before those heavy showers arrive. there's a few more showers, though, to come in scotland and northern ireland, perhaps the far north of england. should be a bit brighter but a bit of sunshine will trigger some thunderstorms. the odd shower across england and wales and a bit of rain coming into the far southwest. that's keeping temperatures a little bit lower here. but otherwise, widely, temperatures are going to be a reasonable 16—18 degrees on sunday afternoon. now, there is a bit of rain in the southwest — it's on that weather front there, an area of low pressure. not really much wind to move things on at all. there's a bit of uncertainty as to how far north that showery rain could get but it's pushing a little further north into england and wales. there'll be some sunshine but we're also going to trigger some more of these slow—moving, heavy, thundery showers, particularly in scotland. and temperature—wise on monday afternoon for the bank holiday, typically 16 or 17 degrees. now, after the bank holiday, the weather is going to change, wouldn't you know it?

and it's going to get a lot drier because that area of low pressure moves away and this area of high pressure will build in. now, around the top of it next week, we could well see a bit of rain towards northwestern areas of the uk but on the whole, it is looking like it's going to get dry after monday. there'll be more in the way of sunshine around as well and if anything, those temperatures are going to be rising, getting into the low 20s in many places later in the week.

live from washington, this is bbc news. fighting continues in gaza, but signs of progress on a ceasefire deal. the cia directorjoins talks in egypt ahead of the arrival of a hamas delegation. us college campuses prepare for graduation ceremonies after confrontations at anti—war encampments. and, as european leaders double down on their support to ukraine, we hearfrom two

former us ambassadors to nato. i'm sumi somaskanda. glad you could join us. hamas says it will send a team to egypt on saturday, in the latest negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal with israel. the group said "it's determined to secure an agreement in a way that fulfils palestinians' demands. " the wall streetjournal is reporting that israel is giving hamas one week to accept the current deal orface a ground invasion of the city of rafah. egypt, qatar, and the us are once again facilitating the talks. israel wants dozens of hostages returned home, and a temporary ceasefire before it resumes its mission to destroy hamas. as our security correspondent frank gardner explains, hamas wants guarantees of a permanent withdrawal of israeli forces and an end to the war — something israel has not shown willingness to accept. everyone's waiting for the hamas team to give

its first formal response after they arrive in cairo.