The Government of National Unity (GNU) faced a critical year, navigating internal policy disagreements and public scepticism while preparing for pivotal local government elections at the end of the year.

With his attack on Venezuela and threatened invasion of Greenland, US President Donald Trump continued to shred the last vestiges of international law, replacing it with an order where superpowers exercised unrestrained dominion over their spheres of influence.

The NFP’s withdrawal from the KwaZulu-Natal government of provincial unity (GPU) destabilised the governing arrangement and opened the door for the EFF to potentially assume a king-maker role in the provincial legislature.

South Africa faced mounting pressure to explain Iran’s participation in naval drills off Cape Town, a move that further soured South Africa’s already fractious relations with the US. In response, the Presidency claimed it had issued a directive to Defence Minister Angie Motshega to cancel Iran’s involvement.

Five years after the initial outbreak of foot and mouth disease in South Africa, and two months after the minister of agriculture announced a “comprehensive national vaccination campaign” there was still no mass availability of effective vaccines. In the meantime, farmers were losing millions in production losses, livestock deaths and the destruction of generic material built up over decades.

DA leader John Steenhuisen announced that he would not seek a third term as party leader, saying he wanted to concentrate on his portfolio as Minister of Agriculture and fighting the ongoing foot and mouth outbreak. According to reports, he was pressured into leaving following bruising inter-party controversies over the previous three months.

In his State of the Nation address, President Cyril Ramaphosa cited the strengthening of the rand against the dollar and the country’s removal from the grey list as some of the key indicators that the country is making progress.

KwaZulu-Natal’s economy could face one of its most severe shocks in decades if sugar giant Tongaat Hulett collapses, with government and business leaders warning that thousands of jobs and the entire agricultural value chain were at risk.

South Africa’s water crisis continued to worsen, fuelled by mismanagement, ageing infrastructure and the deliberate vandalisation of water treatment plants.