African National Congress

South African President Jacob Zuma spoke about the election on Saturday as protesters stood silently with signs referring to his acquittal on rape charges in 2006.

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s ruling party suffered its worst election setback since taking power at the end of apartheid a generation ago, with the African National Congress losing the capital, Pretoria, and its surrounding Tshwane metropolitan area. But it won a tight race for the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, election authorities reported Saturday night.

The opposition Democratic Alliance, which named its first black party leader last year, made a strong move out of its stronghold in the city of Cape Town, winning in three of the country’s six largest municipalities. With no party reaching a majority in Johannesburg or Tshwane, the possible formation of coalition governments is the next challenge.

Scandals around President Jacob Zuma came back to haunt him even as he praised a peaceful vote. As he spoke on national television, four women stood up in front of him, silently facing the crowd and holding signs that appeared to refer to his acquittal for rape in 2006. Zuma didn’t appear to respond.

The election losses have threatened two decades of dominance by the ANC, the former antiapartheid movement.

Since South Africa’s first all-race election in 1994, the ANC has had widespread support on the strength of its successful fight against white-minority rule, while bringing basic amenities to many people. But its hold has been weakened by corruption scandals and a stagnant economy that has frustrated the urban middle class, while poor communities demand better services in a country with one of the highest inequality rates in the world.

‘‘Election after election, the ANC has hung on to its past glory and kept its place in the hearts of most South Africans. . . . This time round, though, it’s not enough,’’ the Mail & Guardian newspaper said in an editorial. On social media, South Africans mocked Zuma’s recent claim that the ANC would rule ‘‘until Jesus comes back.’’

In a brief address shortly before final results were announced, Zuma, 74, thanked South Africans for a vote he called largely peaceful, free, and fair.

‘‘Our democracy is maturing,’’ he said. ‘‘Let us get back to work and build our country together.’’

The election was notable for its peaceful power shift away from an entrenched government in Africa, where some leaders have been in office for decades. In neighboring Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe, 92, has kept control since independence in 1980 with disputed elections and crackdowns on dissent.

Before this election, the ANC had never lost a major black-majority municipality. Now it has lost two, including Nelson Mandela Bay, named for the ANC’s star and the country’s first black president.

The Democratic Alliance already runs the country’s second largest city, Cape Town, the only major municipality where blacks are in the minority among white and mixed-race residents. The party, which has roots in the antiapartheid movement, has declared that its brand is good governance.

‘‘For far too long, the ANC has governed South Africa with absolute impunity,’’ the party’s leader, Mmusi Maimane, 36, told reporters earlier Saturday. He said the idea that his party was a white one has been ‘‘completely shattered.’’

The ANC received 53 percent of votes across the country, its lowest percentage ever;the Democratic Alliance got 26 percent.

The results for the ANC could put pressure on Zuma to leave office before his mandate ends in 2019, political analysts said.

The Economist – A GOVERNMENT without a serious opposition is a dangerous thing, even in a democracy. Unless voters have a genuine alternative, the ruling party has little incentive to govern well. And if one party has all the power, those who wish to abuse public office to enrich themselves will surely join it.

Since democracy came to South Africa with the dismantling of apartheid and the holding of the first all-race elections in 1994, the country has been utterly dominated by one party. South Africans owe a vast debt of gratitude to the African National Congress (ANC) for its long years of struggle against white rule. But that does not give the liberators a right to govern for ever. Like any political party, they should be judged by results. And owing to policy drift, cronyism and corruption, the results are not good.

Unemployment stands at 26.7%, by the government’s own reckoning; add in discouraged workers who no longer bother to register and the number is more like 35%. The economy shrank by an annualised 1.2% in the first quarter of this year, after growing by only 0.4% in the quarter before. South African bonds are rated one notch above junk, and a further downgrade is expected by the end of 2016. In the past year the rand has lost 15% of its value against the dollar.

Politically, the situation looks awful, too. In March the president, Jacob Zuma, was found guilty by the country’s highest court of having violated the constitution by refusing an order to pay back money he took from the state to build himself a private mansion. Corruption charges against him, dropped in 2009, are likely to be reinstated soon. Last year the president fired his respected finance minister, apparently because he had refused to sign off on a nuclear-power deal with Russia that Mr Zuma favoured. Rumours planted by the president’s cronies last month suggested that the current, also impressive, finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, faced imminent arrest (he has so far survived, but is weakened and consequently less likely to challenge Mr Zuma’s excesses).

Until the ANC faces a genuine threat at the ballot box, none of this is likely to change. It won 62% of the vote at the most recent general election, in 2014. Its nearest rival, the Democratic Alliance (DA), managed barely a third of that. Still, the ruling party is not as secure as it once was: a breakaway far-left group, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), took a surprising 6%. And now the ANC faces what could be its toughest test yet (see article). Municipal elections are due on August 3rd. The DA has run Cape Town well and honestly for many years. It has high hopes of breaking out of that enclave and taking power in several other big cities. The greatest prize would be Johannesburg, the country’s commercial capital. That race may be beyond its reach, but others are not. If the DA can take, and make a good fist of running, a slate of municipalities, that will stand it in excellent stead at the 2019 general election.

Incremental reformers v revolutionary hucksters

To do so, it must overcome two obstacles. First, it must persuade black South Africans, who are 80% of the population, that it is not just a party for white and coloured (mixed-race) people. Here it has made progress: it is now led by a black politician and is the closest thing South Africa has to a post-racial party. Second, it must persuade voters that the best alternative to the ANC is the DA’s platform of incremental liberal reform, rather than the EFF’s wild promises of revolution, nationalisation and jobs for all. South Africa needs an opposition, but not one that sees Zimbabwe as a role model.

Few women command the same public respect in South Africa as Thuli Madonsela.

Madonsela, 53, holds the post of public protector in South Africa , an independent watchdog tasked with investigating government corruption and holding the most powerful people to account. South African President Jacob Zuma appointed Madonsela to the role in 2009 for a seven-year term, due to conclude in October.

Zuma may well regret that appointment. Madonsela’s highest-profile case has been the investigation of Zuma’s misuse of state funds in improving his sprawling residence at Nkandla, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. She authored a 2014 report titled Secure in Comfort , numbering more than 400 pages, concluding that the president had “benefited unduly” from the upgrades—which included a swimming pool and amphitheater and totaled an estimated 246 million rand (worth $23 million at the time)—and should be made to repay funds spent on non-essential security upgrades.

Prior to the 2014 report’s release—which came less than two months ahead of a general election that Zuma won convincingly—South African police reportedly threatened to arrest Madonsela, arguing that the report would constitute a breach of the president’s security. During the two years following its publication, Madonsela was ignored or insulted by the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Deputy defense minister Kebby Maphatsoe accused her of being an agent of the CIA , while former national police commissioner and ANC national executive committee member Bheki Cele said she must “stop acting like she is God.”

Madonsela was finally vindicated in March, however, when the country’s highest court ruled that Zuma had failed to uphold the constitution by ignoring Madonsela’s report. In its ruling, the Constitutional Court praised Madonsela and her office as “an embodiment of a biblical David” and Madonsela herself welcomed the judgement as having “restored hope in the constitutional dream.”

Madonsela’s public advocacy against corruption has earned her enemies, however, as she claimed to have been notified of a bounty against her life. The public protector told South Africa’s Sunday Times that she received a text message on April 1 from a trusted informant, telling her that a gang leader in the Western Cape region had been contracted to have her assassinated. Madonsela said she is “traumatized” by the plot, which she believes to be authentic, and has stopped jogging in the mornings as a security precaution. The anonymous informant also confirmed that 740,000 rand ($49,000) had changed hands for the hit, which was reportedly planned for May and would be made to look like a car accident.

The opposition Democratic Alliance party, led by Mmusi Maimane, has called on the South African Police Service to fully investigate the allegations, saying that public officials like Madonsela cannot “have threats made on their lives for acting in a manner that is too independent in an effort to root out government corruption.” The ANC is yet to comment publicly and was not immediately available when contacted by Newsweek . There is no evidence of a link between the Nkandla investigation and the alleged death threats against Madonsela, who has said she does not know the identity of those threatening her.

The incident highlights the costs that come with speaking out against corruption in a violent and sometimes unstable society like South Africa. It is likely that whoever replaces Madonsela come October will take on her mantle with more than a hint of trepidation.

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