ANC’s unconvincing election victory: Legacy of the apartheid regime

The first half of May saw the South African general elections making headlines in all of the major international news channels. From political analysts to economists, everyone was having their say about the difficult path the African National Congress (ANC), especially its leader Cyril Ramaphosa, was having to navigate to win people's vote. The reason?

Twenty-five years after the end of apartheid, South Africa still remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. With imbalanced land distribution, high unemployment, rising poverty and numerous allegations of corruption against the ANC government which has ruled South Africa since 1994, the party was having a hard time convincing the voters, especially the "free born", to vote for them. And although they won the elections, thanks to the personal popularity of the party's leader and presidential candidate, Ramaphosa and his promises of change, the victory was marred by the fact that the ANC won with just 58 percent of the votes, shy of the 60 percent the party had managed to secure in all the previous elections, since 1994.

It is fair to ask why the ANC is losing its popularity in a society that it had shaped through its anti-apartheid revolution. The answer might lie in the extractive and exploitative institutions that had been built in South Africa by the settlers, to suppress the native. The end of the apartheid in 1994, saw the fall of the exploitative rulers, but it seems the extractive institutions built by them are still feeding off the South African economy and its dispossessed communities.

The enactment of the Natives Land Act in 1913 by the settlers ensured that the country was divided into two parts: a rich, prosperous part to be entitled to the white elites; and a poor, backward part, where the black community could be confined. What is astonishing is that according to the act, "87 percent of the land was to be given to the Europeans, who represented about 20 percent of the population. The remaining 13 percent was to go to the Africans."

Disproportionate distribution of land still remains a thorny issue among the blacks. In present day South Africa, the whites, who make up for only 8.2 percent of the population own 72 percent of agricultural holdings and farms. Despite the well-intentioned "willing-seller, willing-buyer" programme of the government, to give land back to the blacks, little has improved for black communities.

However, the Natives Land Act was not the only exploitative institution the apartheid regime had established to assert their supremacy. Through the 1953 Bantu Education Act, the apartheid regime made sure that the native black population was completely deprived of education. The act was aimed at making sure no investment was made by the South African state in black schools so that the blacks could make no economic gain from the benefits of education.

Regarding the Bantu Education Act, Hendrik Verwored, one of the architects of the apartheid regime, in a 1954 speech said, "There is no place for him [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour…For that reason it is to no avail to him to receive a training which has as its aim absorption in the European community while he cannot and will not be absorbed there."

And as early as 1904, the whites had created a job reservation mechanism, that, in one fell swoop, disbarred the blacks from taking up any skilled job in the growing mining economy, with the goal to making sure that they remained the source of cheap labour for the mine owners. Even to this day, racial disparity remains a key reason behind the rising unemployment in the country. According to 2018 economic data of South Africa, unemployment remains the highest among black people at 30.4 percent; while it is the lowest among the white populace at 7.6 percent.

The ANC government's inability to generate sufficient jobs, lack of skilled manpower among the black South Africans, lack of geographically proportionate job opportunities, underdeveloped transportation system along with high cost of travelling are some of the key issues that have led to the rising levels of unemployment in South Africa, especially among the blacks, reinforcing systematic inequality that remains extent throughout South African society, sowing seeds of discontent.

A 2015 research has revealed that of the 30.4 million South Africans living in poverty in 2015, 9 in every 10 were black. And poverty has increased in the last few years, meaning more and more black people are being pushed below the poverty line, despite having toppled the apartheid regime 25 years earlier.

Disenchanted by the prevailing economic disparities between the blacks and the whites, disillusioned by the ANC's inability to live up to its promises of change while facing allegations of rampant corruption, many free born South Africans feel it is time for them to elect a new government, which will be more transparent in their governance process and more active in implementing the much-required reforms. The elder voters, who have been a part of the movement against apartheid, though, are still sympathetic towards the ANC, which might explain the 58 percent majority the party has managed to secure in the recent national elections, despite its dwindling popularity.

Could it be that even after 25 years post-apartheid, the extractive institutions established by the apartheid regime, are hindering the growth of South Africa? Could these pernicious institutions be still acting as enablers of corruption, facilitating the elites to prosper at the cost of the still dispossessed natives?

Many see the victory of ANC in last week's election as the party's last chance to bring in real change. But amidst all the election campaign rhetoric, and all the promises of prosperity, can the new President of South Africa get rid of these decades-old exploitative institutions, to usher in a new era of prosperity for all?

Tasneem Tayeb works for The Daily Star.

Her Twitter handle is: @TayebTasneem