Support for South Africa’s ruling African National Congress is being challenged by a generational divide in rural parts of the country like Qunu, Nelson Mandela’s hometown. David Doyle reports.
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Reuters
In Nelson Mandela’s hometown Qunu, there’s been no running water since 2016, jobs are scarce and crime is on the rise.
It’s been 30 years since Mandela led the African National Congress to power.
In rural locations like this, cracks are now showing in the ANC’s support, among those too young to remember Mandela and the ANC’s battle to end apartheid.
Among older voters, however, like 65-year-old Mzwandile Mthembu, loyalty remains strong.
He has no power in his concrete shack, but gets a pensioner’s grant.
“It doesn’t mean we should abandon them because even if we vote for someone else they can also do the same, that is why I will vote for the ANC until I die.”
The ANC won 63% in this province, Eastern Cape, in 2021.
But that support is being challenged by a generational divide.
Across the road from Mthembu, 37-year-old Lungile Xozwa says he’s had enough of the old guard and would be voting for the opposition.
“Mandela is gone now. Now it’s our time, we must see things differently.”
The challenges in Qunu are echoed across South Africa.
Unemployment is near a record high, murders are rising, and basic services such as electricity are unreliable.
Polls and political analysts are predicting that widespread dissatisfaction will cost the ANC its majority for the first time since 1994, and force it into a coalition.
Some opinion polls have put overall ANC support as low as 39%.
However, it is still on track to get twice the votes of any other party on May 29.
Recent surveys have also shown the party regaining some ground.
The ANC says it needs more time to finish the job.
But it acknowledges that there have also been mistakes in the three decades since Mandela came to power on a wave of hope.
Read also:
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- Election’24: Who will be leading SA post-May 29?
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SOURCE: REUTERS
