South Africa’s election this week is the most consequential since the first post-apartheid election 30 years ago. It is the first time that the African National Congress (ANC), the liberation movement that brought the country freedom, might not secure the majority of votes.
A party that has long banked on loyalty, while shirking good governance, is finally being called to task for its failure to deliver better lives for its people.
Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist who spent 27 years in prison under the apartheid regime, led the ANC to its first victory in 1994, with 70% of the vote. In 1999, after a single term in office, Mandela chose to leave power, bucking a trend in postcolonial Africa of leaders seeking to remain “president for life.” It was a remarkable move that many believed put the country on the right path.
1999 was the year I arrived in Cape Town. It was my first experience living abroad, and I went there to witness a society’s rapid transformation from one of institutionalized racism and white rule to one of equality.
South Africa’s struggle had a special appeal to me because I was born and raised in Mississippi. I knew that our fight against racism was ongoing and wondered if we had lessons to offer from our country’s experience. I would come to believe South Africa had lessons for us instead.
Inequality was massive and baked into the system. Overcoming it overnight was an impossible task, but the new government was taking it head on. I saw the effects of this firsthand at the University of Cape Town, where I studied for a year. I learned about it in courses on South African politics and history. But I learned far more from what I saw around me every day as a student living within that change.
In just a few years, the university had transformed from an almost exclusively white student body to 50-50. That was hardly equitable in a country where more than 90% of the country is nonwhite, but it was progress. The segregated education system had done nothing to prepare Black students for a university education, which was a source of frustration to all, though there was a sense of purpose in the collective effort to overcome it. I felt the pride and justice in the struggle I saw around me.
I studied the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, dedicated to bringing the inequities and abuses of the apartheid era to light. The honesty and transparency with which the new government was taking on the past were remarkable to me, coming from a state where de facto segregation persisted and was ignored by white society and the government.
I left South Africa inspired by the change that could be accomplished quickly with hard work, determination and a commitment to inclusivity. I still have a painting of the Rainbow Nation hanging in my office today. South Africa then was an inspiration to the world.
Since then, though, the country has lost its way, and South Africa today reflects none of the hopeful struggle I witnessed there 25 years ago.
South Africa’s challenges were never going to be easy to overcome, but unaccountable leaders, poor governance and corruption sealed its fate. Mandela may have chosen to leave power, but his party did not. The ANC came to believe it was entitled to loyal public support for its role as liberator, so it did little to try to earn it.
The outcome is astounding. The government’s policy for Black Economic Empowerment has been corrupted, enriching a few instead of spreading the wealth. South Africa has the world’s highest unemployment rate, at over 35%, and remains the world’s most unequal country decades after apartheid. Its homicide rate is at a 20-year high, one of the highest in the world. Perennial infrastructure problems have left the country subject to rolling power cuts and lack of water. South Africans are poorer now than they were in 2006. It’s no wonder the state has failed to deliver, given endemic corruption across the political class, which the current government has recognized but failed to address.
This week’s election might finally hold the ANC to account, at least a little. Ironically, the biggest threats to its support are spinoff parties whose leaders also bear responsibility for the ANC’s long series of failures. But if the ANC is forced to build a coalition to maintain power, it would have to make concessions and admit its flaws — something it hasn’t done before.
If anything, the ANC’s reign is proof that elections alone aren’t enough for equality or even the most basic human needs. As I’ve heard many times before in fragile democracies across Africa, you can’t feed your children votes.
But if this election could put South Africa on a modest path to more accountable government, perhaps the Rainbow Nation could again become a source of hope for the world.
Elizabeth Shackelford is the Magro Family Distinguished Visitor in International Affairs at Dartmouth College and a foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She was previously a U.S. diplomat and is the author of “The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age.”
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