REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA’S RECENT GENERAL ELECTIONS:ANC LOST ITS GRIP ON POWER

 

These are interesting times for the South Africa the continent’s most industrialised and developed Nation,it is No doubt Africa’s celebrated Parliamentary Republic conducted its recent general elections coinciding with 30 years anniversary of the end of Apartheid Racial System of Government when its was established by White minority elite in 1948,it was indeed a watershed for the Liberation movement turned Political Party the African Nation Congress (ANC) when it was founded in 1912 to fight for oppressed and marginalised Black people of African Descent….The 2024 elections was indeed a major challenge to the ANC which has dominated South African political landscape when it ended white minority rule in 1994,unfortunately many in recent times have accused the party of arrogance and display of nonchalance attitude to the pressing challenges of the modern Post-Apartheid South African State such as huge Unemployment,Rising poverty,inequality and poor distribution of the nation’s wealth amongst the majority black populace that form nearly 77% of the country’s distinct racial composition of Whites,Coloured,Asians of mostly Indian origin…In the midst of the recent slump by the ANC which saw its parliamentary majority from record 75% to 40%,one man many ignored especially in the ANC ranks to their peril was the immediate past President of South Africa Jacob Gedleykisa Zuma 82 a veteran of the Anti-Apartheid struggle who served as Deputy President of the Republic (1999-2005) and later President of Republic of South Africa(2009-2018) who had held the post as ANC President in the recent past,after his forced resignation from office as President in 2018 and his recent conviction for contempt of court which saw him spend 3 months in Jail…He was not considered a force despite his enormous influence within the ranks of the ANC,in anger with the Ruling ANC led by his erstwhile Deputy and current President Cyril Ramaphosa,Zuma staged a rebellion by forming the Umkhonto Wesizwe(MK) party described as a breakaway faction of the ANC in less than 5 months eroded the voting strength of the ANC in  his Kwa-zulu natal province which saw the party carting away 58 seats in the SA Parliament leaving the ANC with 159 seats from a 400 seat National legislature based in Cape Town..

Who is the man Jacob Zuma

Described as arguably South Africa's most controversial politician to date, he gained notoriety during his time as Deputy President when his then financial adviser schbair shaik was jailed for corruption charges linked to Zuma on a French arms bribery deal, though Zuma denied wrongdoing despite formal indictments and prosecution by the South African prosecution authorities...Jacob Zuma never attended formal education rising from poverty in his rural Nkandla stead to becoming a major force during the Anti-Apartheid struggle spending 10 years in Prison alongside Nelson Mandela South Africa’s First democratically elected President and later becoming leader of the ANC in its post-apartheid era..He is described as the “Man next door” for his simplicity, humanitarian disposition to close party members, and his huge supporter base in South Africa. Though Zuma has previously vowed in 2012 during the centenary celebrations of the ANC that the party would rule South Africa forever, now that the tide has turned against him coupled with his suspension by the ANC and his romance with the MK it is yet to be seen how the ANC might finally lose its grip of South African politics.

He has accused members of the ANC and other vested interests in the country of always plotting to take their pound of flesh on him out of envy and bitterness to him as part of his rising political profile...Jacob Zuma has vowed to unseat current President Ramaphosa whom he has accused of running down the lofty legacies of the Apartheid era, with the conclusion of the Elections in South Africa the ANC has agreed to form a Government of National Unity with preferably the runners-u

p the Democratic Alliance(DA) a move never contemplated due to its overwhelming dominance of politics in the Rainbow nation.