South Africa heads to the polls in first ‘Born Free’ election
Twenty years after South Africans wowed the world by voting to end centuries of racist rule, they will turn out to 22,263 polling centres to elect lawmakers and, in turn, a democratic president.
As in 1994 and the three subsequent elections, the African National Congress (ANC) is expected to win handily.
Opinion polls in South Africa's Sunday Times over the last two months have put ANC support at around 65 percent, only a little lower than the 65.9 percent it won in the 2009 election that brought President Jacob Zuma to power.
The resilience of ANC support has surprised analysts who a year ago were saying the party could struggle at the polls as its glorious past recedes into history and voters focus instead on the sluggish economic growth and slew of scandals that have typified Zuma's first term.
Africa's most sophisticated economy has struggled to recover from a 2009 recession – its first since the 1994 demise of apartheid – and the ANC's efforts to stimulate growth and tackle 25 percent unemployment have been hampered by powerful unions.
Zuma ‘not worried’
South Africa's top anti-graft agency accused Zuma this year of "benefiting unduly" from a $23 million state-funded security upgrade to his private home at Nkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal province that included a swimming pool and chicken run.
His personal approval ratings have dipped since the findings by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. But at a news conference this week to conclude the ANC election campaign, the 72-year-old brushed aside suggestions that the accusations had damaged the party.
"I'm not worried about Nkandla," Zuma said. "The people are not worried about it. I think the people who are worried about it is you guys, the media, and the opposition."
Besides being easy fodder for the cartoonists who have revelled in the freedom of speech enshrined in the post-apartheid constitution, Nkandla has exposed the gulf between current and former ANC leaders, in particular Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, who died in December.
It has also become the rallying cry for those who feel the dominance of the ANC as it enters its third decade in power has corrupted the 102-year-old former liberation movement's soul.
Nonetheless, the result is widely expected to favour the ANC.
"Overall, the election is reassuringly boring," Simon Freemantle, an economist at Standard Bank in Johannesburg, told Reuters. "We know who's going to win and we know there are not going to be any radical policy changes. That is reassuring."
‘South African Chavez’ biggest threat
The ANC's nearest rival, the Democratic Alliance, polled just 16.7 percent nationwide in 2009 and, even though it has been gaining ground, is still seen too much as the political home of privileged whites to have mass appeal.
Instead, the most spirited challenge has come from the ultra-leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) led by expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who models himself on Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, right down to the jaunty red beret.
In his final rally at a Pretoria soccer stadium, Malema, who wants to nationalise banks and mines and seize white-owned farms without compensation, lambasted everything from the Nkandla imbroglio to foreign investors and former colonial powers.
"London must know that we're not scared of the Queen," he said to thunderous applause from the 30,000-strong crowd.
"Therefore, we shall not report to London. We will report to the people. The people of South Africa will decide how business is conducted in South Africa. We are taking everything."
However, even the EFF's noisy emergence is likely to have minimal overall impact, with polls putting its support at 4-5 percent. But of 1.9 million "Born Free" voters aged 18-19 – its key constituency – only one in three is registered.
The silver-tongued Malema himself is also likely to be barred from public office later this month if a court confirms a provisional sequestration order imposed in February because of 16 million rand ($1.4 million) owed in unpaid taxes.
Polls open at 5am GMT and close at 7pm GMT. A firm idea of the outcome should be available by midday on May 8. Nearly 25.4 million voters out of a 53 million population have registered.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
