Published on: 28.04.2026 | Author: Dr. Dimitar Keranov, MRSSAf, MAkadSA
Ten Countries South · Politics Explainer #1 · Regions (ISSN 3033-2516)
South Africa: Democracy at a Crossroads
South Africa is the most industrialised and one of the most politically complex countries on the African continent. It is a constitutional democracy with an independent judiciary, a free press, and regular competitive elections — yet it is also a country where decades of liberation movement dominance have left deep marks on how power is exercised and contested. Understanding South African politics means holding both of those truths at once.
From liberation movement to governing party
The African National Congress (ANC) led the struggle against apartheid, the system of institutionalised racial segregation that governed South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. When Nelson Mandela won the country's first fully democratic election in 1994, the ANC began what would become an uninterrupted thirty-year hold on national power. For much of that period, its electoral dominance reflected genuine popular legitimacy — the party was inseparable, in many voters' minds, from the story of freedom itself.
Over time, however, the ANC's record in government became harder to defend. Corruption scandals, chronic unemployment hovering around 32 percent, catastrophic failures in electricity supply (South Africans lived through years of rolling blackouts known locally as "load shedding"), and rising violent crime eroded the party's standing. The era of Jacob Zuma's presidency (2009–2018) became particularly associated with state capture — the systematic hollowing out of public institutions for private and factional gain. Zuma was eventually forced to resign by his own party, but the damage to both the ANC's reputation and the country's institutions ran deep.
The 2024 watershed
In May 2024, for the first time in nearly thirty years, the ANC lost its parliamentary majority. The party received 40.18 percent of the vote — well short of a majority — while the Democratic Alliance (DA) came second with 21.81 percent, followed by the newly formed uMkhonto we Sizwe party (MK) at 14.58 percent, and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at 9.52 percent.
The MK party deserves particular attention. It was founded in December 2023 by former president Jacob Zuma, who named it after the ANC's historical military wing and accused the current ANC leadership of serving as a proxy for vested economic interests. The party drew heavily on Zulu nationalist sentiment and caused the ANC's support in KwaZulu-Natal province to collapse by over 37 percentage points compared to 2019.
Rather than forming a narrow coalition with populist parties, the ANC chose a different path. It formed a Government of National Unity (GNU) with the DA — two ideologically opposed parties brought together by the arithmetic of an inconclusive election. The GNU ultimately commanded a substantial parliamentary majority, though its internal ideological tensions remain a live question for governance.
The fault lines that define South African politics
South Africa's political debates cannot be understood without reference to its history. Race, land ownership, economic inequality, and the legacy of apartheid are not background context — they are active political arguments. The ANC and EFF regularly invoke redistribution and transformation; the DA emphasises institutional integrity and economic liberalism. These are not simply left-right differences but reflect genuinely different visions of what post-apartheid South Africa should look like.
At the same time, South Africa has institutions that matter. Its Constitutional Court has repeatedly ruled against sitting presidents and powerful interests. Its civil society is vocal and organised. Its press, while under commercial pressure, remains independent. These are not decorative features — they are the reason South Africa, despite its many difficulties, remains a functioning if deeply imperfect democracy, rather than sliding into the authoritarian patterns visible elsewhere on the continent.
Where things stand
South Africa today is a democracy under stress but not in collapse — not yet. The 2024 election was, in many ways, a healthy democratic signal: voters punished a party that had failed them, forced it into coalition, and produced a more complex parliament. Whether the GNU can translate that parliamentary arithmetic into effective governance — and whether the ANC can reform itself from within — are the central questions of the coming years.
For external observers, South Africa matters far beyond its borders. It is the dominant economy of the southern African region, a member of BRICS, a significant voice in African Union politics, and a country whose democratic trajectory sends signals across the continent. Its BRICS membership and longstanding ties to Russia — rooted in Soviet-era support for the anti-apartheid struggle — have placed it in an increasingly uncomfortable position since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. South Africa has consistently abstained from UN resolutions condemning the invasion, drawing sharp criticism from Western partners and straining its relationship with the United States in particular. Navigating between its historical allegiances and its economic dependence on Western markets and investment is a foreign policy challenge that Pretoria has yet to resolve convincingly.
Sources
- Onero Institute — 2024 South African election results and GNU formation
- Al Jazeera — MK party founding and 2024 election coverage
- Statista — ANC vote share decline in KwaZulu-Natal, 2019–2024
- Al Jazeera / Foreign Policy — South Africa's BRICS membership and Russia–Ukraine abstentions
- Tandfonline (Contemporary Security Policy, 2024) — South Africa's non-alignment crisis and UNGA voting patterns