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South Africa: With general elections in 10 days, country marks 2 decades of democracy
Exactly 20 years ago, South Africans of all races voted in the country’s first democratic election, bringing the ANC to power and making Mandela the country’s first black president. Those polls capped years of nail-biting political negotiations and civil strife which pushed South Africa to the edge of an all-out racial war. The fact that the election was held at all was widely hailed as a miracle.
Bringing about the end of apartheid, the 1994 election also ushered in 2 unbroken decades of ANC rule which is almost certain to be extended when South Africans vote on May 7 in the country’s fifth all-race general election.
The Zuma administration can point to real successes, such as a fast-growing black middle class and the laying of the foundations of a welfare state with 16 million poor people, about a third of the population, now receiving monthly income grants. Millions who previously had no proper roof over their head have had houses built for them which are plugged into the grid.
Zuma noted that 83 percent of households now had sanitation compared to just half in 1994 and that the government had built close to 3 million homes over the past 20 years. “Most people have houses, electricity, and all those basic things, the ANC has brought a lot of change in our lives,” said Njabulo Shabalala, 29, an unemployed man who told reporters he planned to vote for the ruling ANC party.
Source: Reuters
