South Africa faces decisive 2024 election

Many voters in South Africa are tired of waiting thirty years for their first post-apartheid election. This could be the first time the ruling ANC loses its majority.

“In 1994, I was 51 years old, and I voted for the first time,” said John Kani, a prominent South African actor, as he told DW about his experience voting in the country’s first post-apartheid election. “I was angry because it had taken so long to do something so simple as to put an X against the name of the party that I thought would deliver my freedom.”

Thirty years later, the South African theatrical pioneer is once more enraged ahead of the May 29 elections. Although he acknowledges that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has accomplished some great things, he is “sad about the corruption and political violence.”

“We had political leaders in 1994 who had a vision and a dream to serve our people,” Kani said in Johannesburg. The ANC, headed by Nelson Mandela who became president, swept to power in those elections. “In 2024, we have political opportunists that are looking for work for the next five years.”

The impending election in the rainbow nation, where voters will select a new National Assembly and legislature in each of the nine provinces, is not helping the 80-year-old feel any better.

83% of South Africans responded negatively to a survey conducted by the polling firm Ipsos last year regarding the direction their nation was heading in, out of 29 countries. Peru and Argentina were the only two countries thought to be further off course.

The 62 million citizens of the nation deal with serious socioeconomic issues. South Africa, the most unequal nation on Earth, also has the highest unemployment rate globally. The unemployment rate is close to one-third, and it rises to four percent if you including people who are no longer looking for work.

Loadshedding, or rolling blackouts, is now considered the norm. Only 35 days in 2023 saw the state-run power company Eskom in Africa’s most industrialized country avoid having to turn off the electricity to a portion of the country. Everything is drastically impacted by the unstable power supply, including business, healthcare, and education.