South Africa’s embattled health minister, Zweli Mkhize, has bowed to pressure to step aside over corruption allegations, but analysts say President Cyril Ramaphosa still has a mountain to climb to cleanse the ruling party of graft.

Ramaphosa came to power in February 2018 on a ticket to root out the plundering of state coffers that prevailed under his predecessor Jacob Zuma. But scandals have been rife since then, culminating this year with the case of Mkhize. Lauded for his response to the pandemic, Mkhize fell from grace over allegations his department irregularly awarded coronavirus-linked contracts to a communications company, Digital Vibes, manned by his former associates.

“Government trust is declining all of the time, even trust in democracy itself is declining,” warned Narnia Bohler-Muller of South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council.

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