South African’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), is in trouble. After 30 years in charge, it is scrambling for support ahead of the upcoming national elections.
The ANC has run the country since the end of apartheid in 1994, initially with Nelson Mandela as its leader. Crumbling infrastructure, particularly to do with electricity supply, a growing lack of employment opportunities, and the perception of elite corruption have all eroded the promise and the early nobility of Mandela’s emergence on to the South African government stage.
Even the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has had his own brush with corruption accusations. He was cleared of these, but his track record as someone able to turn South Africa around and help it find its feet once again towards economic progress and fairer distribution, has been hampered by massive infrastructure disintegration. Huge electricity blackouts and unreliable transport have affected domestic voters as well as the huge industries that depend on energy and getting their products to the coast for export, which has constrained South Africa’s economic growth.
