BOOKS: Many South Africans who vote for the ANC are by no means blind to the party’s mistakes.
After the 2016 municipal election, it seemed as if the ANC might be heading for defeat in the 2019 general election. Although the party again attracted more than 50% of the vote this year, the result represented by far its biggest slide in support and the lowest number of votes it has ever received in a general election, as the table on the right shows.
The other outlier was either the 2016 result or the 2019 result. If the ANC were to advance again in the future, the 2016 result would prove to be the outlier, maybe because former president Jacob Zuma was then at his most unpopular and the divergent opposition parties banded together for once — before President Cyril Ramaphosa and his administration embarked on efforts to mend the country.
This is in spite of the fact that the ANC truly doesn’t govern well where the party is in control. There is surely no party in the history of modern democracy that enjoyed the moral high ground over its opponents to a greater extent than the ANC did at the time of South Africa becoming a democracy in 1994. And there is surely no other political party that has destroyed its dearly gained moral supremacy through corruption, maladministration and cronyism to the extent that the ANC has done.
These ANC disasters are not perceptions. Unfortunately, the cold, hard, indisputable facts prove each and every miserable one of them. The 2019 municipal audit report released by the office of the auditor general, Kimi Makwetu, found that only 18 of the country’s 257 municipalities received clean audits as a result of quality financial statements and performance reports, and by complying with all key legislation. Of these, 13 were under DA control and only five under ANC control.
Anyone who tries to deny that these ANC-driven plans are fairly successful is either politically insensitive or clueless about what really matters in grassroots South African political discourse. The enduring popularity of the ANC — despite all its mistakes, flaws and corrupt behaviour — isn’t because of the fact that the South African electorate is stupid or even masochistic.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
JOHN DLUDLU: ANC has tied its own hands, so it debilitates the whole countryMore than a century after its founding, the ANC has not been refashioned as a governing party
Read more »
Why Chiefs coach Middendorp didn't play several players against ChippaKaizer Chiefs’ decision to rest several key players against Chippa United on Wednesday night has paid off‚ and the club have a full bill of health for Saturday’s Absa Premiership Soweto derby match-up against Orlando Pirates at FNB Stadium.
Read more »
Former DG Themba Maseko tells state capture inquiry why he quit officeFormer department of public service and administration (DPSA) director-general Themba Maseko told the state capture inquiry on Wednesday that he left the public sector in 2011 because his relationship with then minister Richard Baloyi 'did not gel'.
Read more »
Why doctors are leaving the health profession in drovesGalloping medico-legal claims ranging between R50 million and R80 million, coupled with exorbitant medical insurance rates of up to R1 million a year are some of the many reasons specialists are leaving the health profession in droves
Read more »