As the ceremonies to mark the passing of Nelson Mandela come to a close and South Africa prepares for a national election, we will be bringing together a panel to look at the political future of the country.

This year’s election will be the fifth free election since the end of apartheid in 1994. As South Africa enters its 20th year of democracy we will be examining today’s political landscape. What does the future hold for the ANC and its current leader Jacob Zuma?

With wide-spread corruption, unemployment rising and slow economic growth under the ANC, who will the people of South Africa turn to in 2014? The ANC is still the dominant political force but without change will this still be the case following another term? We will be looking at the political make-up of the country, where the divisions lie and how these might develop.

Chaired by Patrick Smith, the editor-in-chief of Africa Confidential and Africa-Asia Confidential.

The panel:

John Battersby is the country manager of Brand South Africa in the UK. Previously he was editor-in-chief of the Sunday Independent in Johannesburg, and served as The New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor’s southern Africa correspondent.

Sophie Masipa is the director of communications at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, established in 2006 with a focus on the critical importance of leadership and governance in Africa.

Martin Plaut is senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, former BBC Africa editor and author of a number of books including Who Rules South Africa?

Jonny Steinberg is a South African writer and lecturer in African Studies at Oxford University. His work explores South African people and institutions in the wake of the transition to democracy.

An epic film version of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, adapted by Bill Nicholson, tells the story from his childhood in a rural village to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Starring Idris Elba and Naomie Harris, it tells story of an ordinary man who rose to the challenge of his times and triumphed – an intimate portrait of the making of a modern icon.

The film is the largest South African production ever mounted, and was made with the full support and endorsement of Mr Mandela, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory. South African producer Anant Singh spent 16 years developing the film before it began shooting in May 2012. Thousands of South Africans participated in the making of the film, both behind and in front of the camera.

Directed by Justin Chadwick
Duration: 146′
Year: 2013