South Africa’s wake-up
The ANC, anti-apartheid hero, shows its age
Last week’s local elections in South Africa provided a predictable wake-up call to the African National Congress, which has ruled the country pretty much without political competition since majority rule was achieved in 1994.
The nature and quality of rule in South Africa remains important both to the rest of Africa, where it serves as the continent’s economic locomotive, as well as to the well-being and prospects of its own 55 million population.
The ANC, the spearhead of the majority-rule movement, led by the late Nelson Mandela, this time fell for the first time under 60 percent in the vote it achieved in local elections. The vote tally across the country showed 54 percent for it, 27 percent for the Democratic Alliance, a multiracial party led for the first time by an African, Mmusi Maimane, and 8 percent for the more radical Economic Freedom Fighters. The EFF is led by Julius Malema; its adherents wear red berets, and it advocates the nationalization of South Africa’s mines and confiscation of white-owned lands.
When the ANC achieved rule in 1994, it inherited the monumental task presented by a country with a large African majority but with most of the country’s wealth in the hands of its whites.
The population breakdown now is estimated at 79 percent African, 9 percent white, 9 percent Coloured (or mixed race) and 2.5 percent Asian.
The trick for the ANC government in 1994 was to try to somehow meet the economic and social demands of the political majority without destroying the economy. Assets include mining, agriculture, industry and finance. Zimbabwe, ex-Southern Rhodesia, faced a comparable problem at independence in 1980 and has failed miserably at building a prosperous or democratic society. The ANC has stumbled in South Africa, falling victim to weak leadership under President Jacob Zuma, 74, something of an oaf. South Africa is now increasingly plagued by corruption and a failure to provide its population basic services such as electricity, water and housing as well as jobs.
In assessing these election results, several observations can be made. The first is that they indicate that one-party ANC rule is faltering seriously, 22 years after majority rule was achieved. But the ANC still won, with strong support especially in South Africa’s rural areas. But it was seriously challenged by two parties, the DA and the EFF, both led by leaders half Mr. Zuma’s age. The DA won, for example, in Cape Town; in Tshwane, the former Pretoria; and in Nelson Mandela Bay, the former Port Elizabeth, all three significant population centers.
If the ANC is not to see the deterioration of its vote totals continue, it will need, first, to choose more honest, more competent leadership than Mr. Zuma at its next party congress, to be held in December of next year. Second, proceeding with new leaders, it will need to sharpen its performance in terms of delivery of services in the eyes of the population before the next national elections in 2019. It can do that, but its leaders will have to concentrate on serving the population, as opposed to helping themselves.