A popular intervention in the management of power is underway in South Africa where the results of yesterday elections into mayoral and local representatives are due out shortly. Nothing is clear yet but two of three main parties in the contest are closely being watched in terms of how they would perform. The African National Congress, (ANC) which won independence in 1994 is facing real electoral challenge for the first time from the Democratic Alliance which is feared to be capable of wrestling the ANC to the ground in terms of control of key cities such as Pretoria, the political capital, Johannesburg, the economic capital and Cape Town.
The results of this municipal election will point at the direction that South Africa’s presidential poll in 2019 could go. It is not projected that the party would lose power but the results might provide the most serious critique of ANC’s performance in power vis-a-vis the promise of liberation.
As at the moment, the picture is not rosy given the rate of unemployment although by the overall African standard, South Africa is a manufacturing economy, about the only one of such on the continent. It is on account of this status that it is regarded as a powerhouse on the continent unlike Nigeria, the other powerhouse whose own powerhouse status is on the basis of her huge population.
