OPINIONISTA: 2019 election set to mark the end of an era By Susan Booysen BooysenS2
South Africa’s 2019 election is a crossroads poll. It expresses the great uncertainty and elevated fluidity that have replaced the pre- and post-1994 adoration of the African National Congress. It exposes a weak, but still dominant former liberation movement. The election forces a comparison of mountains of unfulfilled and continuously arising needs with the expectations of 1994, besides showing off a governing party and government that may have lost the ability to self-correct.
The 2019 election is a second chance – which may very well be the last chance – for the ANC to get its house in order and regain the confidence of citizens and voters. Voters still want to believe that the ANC can go into self-correction mode, beyond the superficial reassurances of the present election campaign.
predictable, consistent and solution-bearing policies. How far and how fast can the required economic-growth turnarounds materialise? How much borrowing to rescue state-owned enterprises can the South African economy handle? The fate of governments the world over is coupled with whether citizens believe there is hope that national economies will bring a better future. In South Africa, uncertainty will accumulate unless economic prospects evolve rapidly.
The uncertainties surrounding the election also rise in terms of South Africa’s approximate two-party system, which albeit within dominant party parameters, is ending. The Economic Freedom Fighters hold the hearts of a large, growing body of young voters –electoral constituency of the future. Election 2019 is set to confirm that the EFF is in South African politics to stay. The party has passed the viability test that the United Democratic Movement and Congress of the People have failed.
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