LAUSR

The 2019 General Elections marked a watershed in South Africa’s political landscape. The ANC under the banner of a narrative of regeneration and getting back on the moral path dipped below the 60% mark for the first time in South Africa’s democratic history. Just a mere three years before the General Elections, the ANC suffered punishing losses in the 2016 Local Government Elections where the party lost power in three major South African municipalities, that of Tshwane, Johannesburg, and Nelson Mandela Bay. The party only managed to secure 55.68% of the vote in this election compared to 63.65% in the 2011 Local Government Elections (IEC 2016, 2011). This decline in electoral support for the party may be interpreted as a degeneration of the ANC through the loss of its moral stature, the erosion of its integrity and disillusionment with its performance as a governing party. It could also potentially signal the decline of party dominance, an enduring characteristic of South Africa’s democratic political system. The procedural integrity of South Africa’s democracy has been undermined by an increase in corruption, a lack of accountability extending to lower levels of government where state resources have been used to fund party paraphernalia during Local Government Elections in some municipalities, demonstrating that the line between party and state has become increasingly blurred. As South Africa marks 25 years of democracy, one cannot ignore that the Dream of ‘94 (Steyn-Kotze 2017) remains elusive for ordinary South Africans. South Africa remains a highly divided society, in terms of class, race and gender. Two seemingly enduring legacies of apartheid characterise the socio-political realities of today: the seeming permanence of apartheidconstructed socio-political identities, and the concentration of poverty amongst the black African population. In assessing progress made towards achieving a non-racial, non-sexist South Africa, the ANC (2012) noted, ‘a major policy weakness in the last 18 years has been a failure to significantly transform the colonial industrial structure and ownership of the economy’. This lack of transformation is rooted in the view that the implementation of its policy agenda has not sufficiently delivered on the vision of South Africa as captured in the Freedom Charter. In the 2019 General Elections campaign, issues of economic redress through a narrative of (radical economic) transformation, land redistribution, and a commitment to economic justice dominated the electoral narrative and messaging in political parties’ electoral campaigns. The run-up to the 2019 General Elections campaign was characterised by factionalism within the ANC that culminated with the reluctant resignation of Jacob Zuma as president of the country. In what can be seen as yet another battle for the soul of the ANC, the 2018 ANC Elective Conference marked a turning point for the party. In highly contested internal party leadership elections, Cyril Ramaphosa rose to become the new ANC president. He campaigned on the promise of a new dawn, a return to moral stature, and a need to regain the trust of ordinary South Africans following Zuma’s nine wasted years. Under Ramaphosa’s leadership, the ANC had daunting task a mere five months before South Africans went to the polls; rebuilding trust in the ANC brand with Cyril Ramaphosa as the face of the campaign to get South Africa back on track under his presidency.