Cape Town (Brussels Morning) – South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), has failed to secure a majority in the latest elections, marking a significant shift after 30 years of dominance. The ANC garnered 40.18% of the vote, necessitating a coalition to maintain control. Key reasons for declining support include high unemployment, crime rates, frequent power outages, and pervasive corruption. The Democratic Alliance (DA) and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) are potential coalition partners. Historical challenges such as economic inequality, persistent poverty, and political corruption continue to plague South Africa, underscoring the need for substantial reforms.
In a historic shift, South Africa’s principal party, the African National Congress (ANC), did not achieve a majority in the latest elections, garnering only 40.18% of the vote. This marks the first time in 30 years that the ANC has not secured a dominant share, requiring them to form a coalition to maintain parliamentary control. The decline in support reflects widespread dissatisfaction with the ANC’s handling of critical issues such as unemployment, crime, power outages, and corruption. As South Africa grapples with enduring economic and social challenges, the new government faces immense pressure to address these longstanding problems effectively.
ANC Faces Historic Setback After 30 Years of Dominance
South Africa’s principal party African National Congress did not take the majority of the votes in the latest elections making a historical change for the 30 years of one-party ruling. Although the party is leading with 40,18% share of the national vote, more than 50% of the votes are required to maintain the parliamentary majority.
From the year 1994, when the apartheid regime has been demolished in South Africa and first free elections took place, African National Congress has been having 57-69% of the votes each election taking the majority of the seats in the parliament. However, this time circumstances are taking a different turn. Main reason for the decline in popularity of the ruling party is lack of reactions to the most pressing problems of the people of South Africa. High unemployment rate of 33%, the unstoppable problem with the skyrocketing crime rate, frequent power outages and soaring corruption are contributing to the deteriorating support for the party.
ANC Seeks Coalition to Retain Power
In order to stay in power, African National Congress will need to form a coalition with another party and together to cross the 50% vote requirement. The second party after ANC is Democratic Alliance¨ with 20% share of the votes with MK going right after with 14% of the votes. African National Congress is defined to be nationalistic, center-left, social-democratic party, so it is better for it to compose an alliance with a party of similar ideological spectrum. The Democratic Alliance, the main rival of ANC, is staying for liberalism, federalism, anti-corruption and non-discrimination policies while being described as a centrist party.
MK or uMkhonto we Sizwe is a left-wing populist party, which supports Zulu nationalism and social-conservative policies. Former president and a leading figure of ANC Jacob Zuma, clearly supports the uMkhonto we Sizwe and it is expected that ANC could form an alliance with this party. Due to the official final election results, African National Congress takes 159 sits and has already proclaimed that it is open for the coalition formation. If the alliance won’t be formed, ANC will lose its power and it will hinder current president Cyril Ramaphosa from being reelected for another term.
Main issues of South Africa and its government
South Africa has been struggling with maintaining stability in the country after the fall of the apartheid regime in 1994. Immense unemployment rate, increasing HIV and AIDS pandemic, xenophobic sentiments and pending crime rate were main issues of the ANC government from the beginning of early 2000s. After more than two decades of ANC in power, the vast majority of these problems have not been resolved.
Despite South Africa being first economy of the African continent with relatively high GPD per capita, economic growth has always been unstable due to still remaining racial segregation, huge income inequality and high poverty rate. South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries of the world. The top 10% of the population own more than 85 % of the household wealth, while more than 60% of the population lives below the poverty line. To that day, a small number of white-owned businesses dominate various sectors of the South African economy controlling significant resources and influences governmental economic policies.
ANC’s Controversial Legacy and Ongoing Challenges
The most controversial ANC mandate was during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, former political prisoner, who has been benefiting from state expenditure and has been involved in several corruption scandals. He increased the role of state-owned enterprises, what in future resulted in huge debts of unprofitable ones, which the government still has been supporting. Although Jacob Zuma has been removed from office after a vote of non-confidence by the Parliament, the new government of Cyril Ramaphosa did not put an effort to change the internal situation of the state.
The president was also charged of corruption and has been blamed over worsening economic conditions. In 2020 one of the biggest enterprises Eskom, which had a monopoly over South African energy sector, collapsed with prolonged power shortages. Vast majority of the South African territory met the total electricity blackout. One of the main reasons for that was constant corruption cases and non-renewed infrastructure.
The majority of the Eskom power plants need extensive reconstruction as they are exceedingly old and require more maintenance. Despite government measures in response to the crisis, including fast-tracking independent power producers and renewable energy projects, these measures took time to implement and were not an immediate solution to the problem. Power shortages are still periodically happening with power cuts lasting up to 12 hours.
Enduring Corruption and Efforts for Reform
South Africa’s government has a long-history problem of integral political corruption along with political incapacity. From 6 head of South African state after 1994 there were only few of them, who were trying to implement various reforms in order to change the situation in the country. Thabo Mbeki, the second democratically elected president of South Africa and deputy president under Nelson Mandela administration, was one of those. He implemented several social democratic and neoliberal policies that had some positive effect on the economy of South Africa in the late 1990s.
Thabo Mbeki has also been promoting black economic empowerment programme, which was aimed at expanding the participation of black population in the economy of South Africa. He was the main creator of the “New Partnership for Africa’s Development” and an inaugural chairperson of the African Union.
Urgent Challenges for South Africa’s New Government
The new government of South Africa needs to face the main issues of the state in order to maintain internal stability otherwise social tensions will be rising year-by-year. Clashes has already been seen in the year 2021, when former president Jacob Zuma has been sentenced for 15 months of imprisonment. Protesters have been looting the shops and businesses, burning public facilities and private properties.
However, imprisonment of Jacob Zuma for majority of the protesters was just an excuse for justifying the action that they had taken during the demonstration. The consequences of COVID-19 pandemic, corruption and fraud of the public sector alongside skyrocketing unemployment rate and constant energy blackouts were real reasons for the violent social protest. That is why it is essential for the new government to not repeat the mistakes of the past and to listen to its own people…
