The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 624 (May 29 - June 11 2024)
South Africans go to the polls to choose a new government: what's different this time
South Africans go to the polls to choose a new government: what's different this time
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News<br />
MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
South Africans go to the polls<br />
to choose a new government:<br />
Page3<br />
Continued from Page 2<<br />
Mozambique and Zimbabwe. This started to<br />
change in South Africa at local government<br />
level in 2016. <strong>The</strong> ANC’s dominance of<br />
South African politics has been premised on<br />
the fact that before 1990 it developed the<br />
what’s different this time<br />
status (together with the Pan Africanist<br />
Congress of Azania) of an internationally<br />
endorsed liberation movement of South<br />
Africa.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ANC also enjoyed elevated status as<br />
the party of Nelson Mandela, its late worldrenowned<br />
leader. It enjoyed international<br />
recognition even before it was elected as the<br />
government of South Africa. It occupied a<br />
moral high ground which no other party<br />
could challenge. That moral status and<br />
popular support are now under pressure. <strong>The</strong><br />
risk for the ANC is that, if it loses its status as<br />
the sole governing party, its decline may<br />
accelerate without the possibility of recovery.<br />
Dirk Kotze is a Professor in Political<br />
Science at University of South Africa.<br />
This article is republished from <strong>The</strong><br />
Conversation under a Creative Commons<br />
license. Read the original article.