The politics of changing political winds in South Africa

For the first time since 1994’s nationwide vote and new constitution brought the African National Congress (ANC), led then by Nelson Mandela, to political dominance in South Africa, Mandela’s ANC has lost the majority vote in the country. True, the ANC retained the largest percentage of the public vote (40 percent) cast, but by not carrying over 50 percent of that vote, the ANC was required to craft a new arrangement with one or several minority parties in South Africa in order to create a national government, based on the requirements of the South African constitution.
It could have formed a coalition with just the Democratic Alliance (DA), which received over 22 percent of the vote cast, with the agreement that the current president Cyril Ramaphosa would remain the head of state, but that idea was wildly unpopular, since the DA represents a large contingent of ethnic white (Africaner) participants. None of the other predominantly Black political parties (including the leftist-leaning Economic Freedom Fighters, EFF, led by Julius Malema, and the MK Party , led by Jacob Zuma, who is committed to destroying the current South African Constitution) brought enough vote percentages alone to give the ANC the dominant edge it needs to control the national Parliament. Plus neither of those minority parties would agree to keep Mr. Ramaphosa as national president.
Thus, the ANC made the decision to include all the contesting parties into a national coalition government, with the ANC’s numbers still allowing it to dominate most national decisions by the South African government.` How well this will work is still much of a gamble, but it is thought that allowing all voices a chance to help shape national policies would be a good step forward. South Africa currently retains the mantle as the largest and most successful economy in Africa (followed by Egypt and Nigeria), but it still has serious issues with supplying enough fresh water and electricity regularly to the whole country.
The new coalition government has to overcome those inconveniences as soon as possible, or else the ANC will lose more of the voting next time, and possibly the presidency of the country. A white citizen-dominated government in South Africa ( a return to apartheid?) is a real possibility four years from now if those two issues, and substantial movement on the housing issue, are not significantly improved upon.
Governance is difficult. Progressive, inspiring governance that benefits most of the citizens of a nation is extraordinarily so.
As those who proudly carry the Pan Africanist banner in different parts of the world are having to learn forcefully, slogans and speechifying alone do not carry much weight when real governmental decisions have to be made that impact the everyday survival of a population.
A lot has gone into helping South Africa attain its current status in Africa and in the rest of the world (South Africa is a new member of the G-20, a very impactful world economic grouping, for example), and the country is yet evolving towards even higher ground. But constituents want to be assured that they will have regular access to basic necessities and to international advantages no matter who is in charge of the government. And if the black folks in charge can’t get it done, then whites will have to do it, as they do in most other parts of the world. Yes, that would be a shame; but it may very well become a political-economic reality.
A great many of the former revolutionary champions of the Pan African movement on the continent (e.g., Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Leopold Senghor, Patrice Lumumba, etc.) learned that lesson the hard way. The newest leadership cadre can take heed from the lessons of those first and second generation heads of government on how to keep moving upwards and how to bring their populations to real development and change. They will otherwise be abandoned and left behind because of the current and future African challenges, and color won’t be the deciding factor.
We must keep a close eye on South Africa’s progress in its new political climate, since South Africa represents so much of the progress African people are hoping for in the present and future.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
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