South Africa's ANC faces
tough challenges in national elections
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| South Africans queue to vote at a polling station in the Tlhabologang township in Coligny, North West province (AFP) |
The people of South Africa are casting their ballots in
parliamentary and provincial elections. Officials say the results could be
announced on Saturday. The Director of the Jesuit Institute South Africa shines
the spotlight on some of the main challenges government is facing.
By Linda Bordoni
The Party of Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress,
is facing its toughest electoral test as it seeks to reverse a slide in support
from voters frustrated by corruption and inequality, just one generation after
it won power in South Africa's first democratic poll in 1994.
Opinion polls suggest the ANC will again win a majority of
the 400 seats in the National Assembly, but analysts have predicted its margin
of victory will fall.
Russell Pollitt SJ, Director of the Jesuit
Institute South Africa, told Linda Bordoni that this vote is the first
under President Cyril Ramaphosa, who replaced scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma as
head of state in February 2018.
Father Russell Pollitt explained that it’s a really crucial
election because, for the first time since the dawn of democracy in South
Africa, the ANC is under huge pressure following the last couple of years of
the Zuma presidency and the corruption that has taken place.
Add that, he said, the fact that “many young people have
chosen not to vote because they are disillusioned with government and that a
number of new parties have registered for the first time, so South Africans
have a much bigger choice”.
However, Pollitt said, the play of power is really between
the three main parties: the far left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the
ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the opposition Democratic Alliance
(DA).
“President Cyril Ramaphosa’s future could hang on this
election”, he said.
Main challenges
Pollitt pointed to the huge gap between the rich and the
poor in his country as a top challenge for the new government.
“South Africa is now the country with the most disparity in
the world”, he said.
The second challenge in line, he said, is “corruption in
government and the way they will have to deal with it”.
“And the third, I think, is education and healthcare service
delivery”, he said.
Pollitt said these are all things have to be sorted out “if
the government is going to do anything for the people of the country and stop
the decline that the country seems to have hit”.
Hopes
Pollitt said that at this crucial time what he continues to
hope for is a government “that is really going to care for its people; that is
going to use the money of the people well. A government that is going to make
sure that corruption is rooted out and that basic services like clean water and
electricity are delivered to many people who simply don’t have them”.
He agreed that they are the same basic services that were
promised to the people of South Africa when it became a democratic nation back
in 1994.
“I think,” he said, “people feel that those promises have
never been fulfilled, and in fact, what the ANC did is what the old National
Party government did: they enriched themselves and took care of themselves. But
for many poor South Africans, life has not really changed”.
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