South Africa’s battered ANC seeks coalition to stay in power

South Africa’s ANC, which ruled the country for three decades, seeks to join a coalition government after it obtained only 40% of the votes in the May 29 elections.

The debacle of ANC was expected as polls showed a falling popularity of the party that ruled what used to be Africa’s richest country since the fall of apartheid regime.

ANC’s quest to stay in power through entering into coalition is a rocky road that could force it to negotiate an alliance with the second largest party in the vote, The Democratic Alliance (DA) which won 22% of the ballot.

However, an alliance with DA would mean a huge compromise for ANC to co-rule with a party that does not share the same anti-white slogans.

In South Africa, the whites still dominate the economy, despite black empowerment measures enacted during the ANC rule, which left a legacy of corruption and nepotism with many ANC ministers charged with corruption.

After the defense minister, who underwent trials for graft, Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Zizi Kodwa, another ANC member, was arrested and charged with taking bribes.

Government corruption was seen as one of the issues that prompted a majority of South Africans to turn away from the ANC in the election.

South Africans also blame the ANC for failing public services, notably dry taps and long power outages that undermined the competitiveness of the South African economy and worsened living conditions.

Under the ANC, South Africa became notorious for a surge in criminality making its cities ones of the most insecure in Africa.