SOUTH Africans went to the polls last Wednesday to elect their municipal and local leaders based on their constitution. The results, at the time of writing this editorial, have to be astounding for the leaders of the African National Congress (ANC), the governing party that has held office since 1994. The 2016 campaign was premised on the record of the ANC post-Nelson Mandela governance. The dreams that South Africans yearned for, which were enunciated by him, and the realities existing on the ground were analysed, and the results have shown displeasure with the ANC’s management of the country.No longer are young and middle class black South Africans haunted and primarily influenced by the apartheid era, and feel their votes belong to only one party. The reality in the post-apartheid era, more particularly within recent years, has seen a society where elected leaders, their families and friends are living grandeur lifestyles at the expense of the state and people. Jobs are elusive, and the quality of life for the normal South African continues to deteriorate, with no hope of any early improvement.

Amidst all of this, there exists an atmosphere within which politicians talk to the people rather than speaking with them. The view is held by some in the ANC leadership that regardless of the party’s performance in government and the treatment meted to its constituents, come election, blacks would vote overwhelmingly for that party. Such level of confidence could be detected in President Jacob Zuma’s remarks that the ANC would be in office “until Jesus comes”, and the party is more important than the country.

This election was the litmus test for the party, which lost Nelson Mandela Bay and Pretoria, the capital — considered two of its strongholds. In Pretoria, the ANC won 41 percent of the vote compared with 55 percent in 2011; and in the Bay, support fell from 52 percent to 41 percent.

The party’s major challenger, the Democratic Alliance (DA), a white- dominated party which recently elected black leader Mmusi Maimane, has shown that no political party which in the past controlled the electorate based on race would continue to have a monopoly over new voters. Efforts by the ANC during the campaign to brand the DA as a white party supported and led by stooges did not prevent ANC traditional supporters from turning their backs on the ANC.

Though experts believe that the ANC’s lock in the rural communities would guarantee that party the presidency for at least another decade, political watchers are bound to ponder what impact the DA would have had on an assured constituency had it contested.
In the 2016 elections, the ANC has a 54 percent showing nationwide, down from 62 percent five years ago; and it has been reported that the decline is steeper in the bigger cities. Last Friday, Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy President of South Africa and the ANC, in apparent recognition of the changing times, said at a news conference that the ANC leaders would have to “do an introspective look at ourselves.”

South Africa has two major races: black and white; and, over the years, there has been white domination of black. Mandela’s politics, dream and fight in his ‘long walk to freedom’, which included incarceration, was to see a country where everyone is treated justly and equally, and the scourge of poverty and denied opportunities addressed. Today, outside of Mandela’s dream and blacks enjoying the right to vote, South Africa is one of the most unequal societies.

In the midst of inequality and physical squalor, Zuma has misused in excess of US$16 million to improve his personal mansion. The court, in April, ruled that his action was unconstitutional, and he has promised to repay the taxpayers. Soon after the court’s decision, he travelled to rural Melmoth, an ANC stronghold, and received a hero’s welcome; and reportedly said to the people: “As your shepherd, let me lead you.”

The world is a village, and Guyana can learn from South Africa’s experience. The ANC reflects a culture that exists among several of our post-colonial leaders, in that even as they condemn the colonial masters for their mistreatment of citizens, abuse of the nation’s resources and quality of governance, they are quick to become mimic men and women when given leadership opportunity.

Steven Friedman, Political Analyst of the University of Johannesburg, said as much: “If you imagine the South Africa of 1994 as a country run by an exclusive club consisting of white people, what has happened over the last 21 years is that new members have been admitted to the club.”