From the moment this year’s South African general election was called, through the whole campaign, the main question everyone here was asking was whether the African National Congress (ANC) could extend its 30-year rule.
The party of Nelson Mandela, elected in 1994 on a wave of euphoria and hope, has had its difficult moments – notably during the Zuma years of corruption – but its hold on power had always seemed electorally assured. It had brought liberation and taken South Africa forward.
But it had not taken all of South Africa forward, and had seemed indifferent to the growing clamour for reform, an end to corruption and greater employment opportunities.
