Last chance to clean up your act

THE curtain’s about to come down on South Africa’s sixth general elections – each one of which has been judged free and fair – only weeks after the 25th anniversary of the country going to the polls for the first time ever as a full democracy.

It is a huge logistical exercise to get this country to vote; some voting stations are in rural areas and little more than tents and torch light, all the way through to the high-tech results centre in Pretoria where all the action has been taking place since Wednesday night.

A hallmark of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has been the transparency with which it operates and the speed at which it reacts to the complaints.

There have been several in this election – as there are every time a nation votes. There have been technical glitches and there have been, at first blush at any case, quite concerning allegations of double voting after the indelible ink washed off some voters’ thumbs.

None of the complaints appear to have been statistically significant given the scale of the elections – 22 925 voting districts.

It’s telling, too, that the loudest complaints have come from the smallest parties unable to win even a single seat and avoid forfeiting their deposits.

For the rest of us, the outcome is fairly clear: the ANC, thanks to President Cyril Ramaphosa, has a renewed mandate, but over a country in which the fractures are clearer than at any time in the last quarter century: the extremists have coalesced on either wing, the moderates in the middle.

As Ramaphosa prepares to trim his cabinet and prepare for his first full run in office he will know that he has to do two things – clean up government and start creating a better life for all, especially the poorest of the poor – or he may not get another chance.