South Africans lose faith in ruling ANC as income inequality grows

Children stand in a street in Alexandra township near Johannesburg on 9 March, 2024. Thirty years after the end of apartheid, South Africa suffers from one of the world's worst rates of income inequality.  AFP - OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT

South Africa will vote on 29 May – three decades after the end of apartheid. The African National Congress has been in power since then, but polls are predicting the party will lose its majority with many voters disgruntled by its failure to address inequality.

When the African National Congress (ANC) came to power led by Nelson Mandela, it promised to improve the lives of black South Africans following decades of apartheid – a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed from 1948 to 1994.