World
Mandela’s Party Faces Test in South Africa
[Daily Star]
South African President Jacob Zuma reads his speech during the memorial service for former South African president Nelson Mandela at the FNB Stadium in Soweto near Johannesburg, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
JOHANNESBURG: Twenty years after the euphoria of South Africa’s first democratic elections swept liberation hero Nelson Mandela to power, the ruling party faces its toughest test at the polls next month.
Rampant corruption and a failure to erase apartheid’s enduring legacy of abject poverty have sown social and political discontent in what is one of the most unequal nations on earth.
Rocked by scandal and bereft of the iconic Mandela after his death in December, the African National Congress is still expected to win the elections easily but could see its majority trimmed.
A group of formerly stalwart ANC supporters led by high-profile former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils last week urged voters to signal their disappointment by voting for one of several small opposition parties or spoiling their ballots.
At the heart of that campaign is outrage over the spending of some $22 million of taxpayers’ money on “security upgrades” for President Jacob Zuma’s rural homestead at a time when millions of South Africans remain desperately poor.
