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         South Africa's Ruling ANC Party Wins 5th Consecutive Election

   by Anita Powell

   South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) won this year's
   election, guaranteeing it another five years at the helm of Africa's
   most advanced nation, but the ANC's share of the vote slipped.
   In all, nearly 19 million votes were cast in last week's national and
   provincial polls. With all votes counted, the ANC won just over 62
   percent of the poll, compared to the opposition Democratic Alliance's
   22 percent.
   ANC officials are painting the results as an outright victory, a
   mandate from the people to continue their work after two decades in
   power. After all, the numbers show that the ANC trounced its nearest
   competitor by more than seven million votes.

   However, in an impressive achievement for a party that was launched
   just last year, the far-left, radical Economic Freedom Fighters nabbed
   third place.
   The success of the party, which targeted South Africa's large
   population of unemployed youth, reflects South Africa's demographic
   shift toward a younger population, as does the fact that the EFF shoved
   aside the venerable Inkatha Freedom Party, which is led by an
   85-year-old man, the respected Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
   But independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga says the raw numbers
   do not tell the whole story. He noted that although the ANC won
   comfortably, it has steadily lost ground since at least 2004.
   "There isn't much to celebrate," Mathekga said. "It should humble the
   ANC to go and do some work. And when it comes to the DA...the DA has
   got a lot to celebrate. They've grown. They've increased their margins
   in all areas. They've not recorded any loss of margin in any province."
   Mathekga says of all the parties, the DA is the only one that has been
   able to gain ground with each election, while the ANC consistently
   sheds 3 percent.
   The ANC has been dogged by criticism over its failure to provide all
   South Africans with basic services. To this day, some 3 million South
   Africans do not have electricity.
   More recently, the party has been tainted by a major scandal revolving
   around President Jacob Zuma, the party's leader. He is accused of
   spending about $23 million in public funds to renovate his private home
   in rural KwaZulu-Natal province.
   However, the ANC, by virtue of being the only party to rule South
   Africa since apartheid's end in 1994, is also the party responsible for
   extending development to benefit the nation's black majority, which was
   shut out under the former apartheid government. The party trumpeted
   this fact in its campaign, but Mathekga says that voters increasingly
   feel that is not enough.
   "This type of vote that they've got, it's more like a 'maintenance
   vote' where the voters are saying to the ANC they should go fix some of
   the problems, and some of the challenges that they have," he said.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/south-africas-ruling-anc-party-wins-5
   th-consecutive-election-/1911905.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/south-africas-ruling-anc-party-wins-5th-consecutive-election-/1911905.html