It’s true that the polls, in this case, were right – but in the weeks leading up to South Africa’s election, it was difficult to take them seriously. It was like a prediction that there would be peace in the Middle East by the end of the summer – not technically impossible, just hard to imagine, let alone believe. Yet, on Sunday 2 June, it was confirmed: the African National Congress (ANC) had lost its majority in South Africa’s National Assembly.
The ANC was the party that set in motion South Africa’s democratic transition post-apartheid. Expressed in its share of the National Assembly seats, its mandate was big and bountiful. Its government executed a complete overhaul of legislation and policy, and the roll-out of huge projects to house and educate those who had been excluded from shelter and learning, new anthems, flags and designs on the money. Though there has been much lamenting of how they did not go far enough – that they did not overhaul the economy, or redistribute privately, and unfairly, owned land – they confidently pushed the country into new and unchartered democratic terrain.
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