South Africa´s ANC Benefitting From Zulu Support

The troubled African National Congress has found its sweet spot. Recently the ruling party has been focusing on wooing the Zulu vote.And it has paid off. By most projections, if the ANC keeps its 65-percent majority in South Africa’s May 7 election, it will be in large part due to rural ethnic Zulu voters.

The ANC has developed various Zulu provinces and in the process undermined its ival Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which was once the regional political force.   According to Yahoo News, “The IFP’s decline has accelerated under President Jacob Zuma, a 72-year-old Zulu with a rural upbringing and firm beliefs in traditional practices such as polygamy.”

The Zulus remain South Africa’s largest ethnic group and account for 28 percent of the country´s 53 million people.  So far, the Zulus have benefitted under Zuma´s rule. Yahoo News reported, “Between 2001 and 2011, the number of brick houses in the old KwaZulu homeland more than doubled to 480,000, while in the Eastern Cape homeland areas the figure only rose a third.”

Source: AFK Insider