JOHANNESBURG — South Africans began voting Wednesday at schools, community centers and in large white tents set up in open fields in an election seen as their country’s most important in 30 years. It could put the young democracy in unknown territory.
At stake is the three-decade dominance of the African National Congress party, which led South Africa out of apartheid’s brutal white minority rule in 1994. It is now the target of a new generation of discontent in a country of 62 million people — half of whom are estimated to be living in poverty.
Africa’s most advanced economy has some of the world’s deepest socioeconomic problems, including one of the worst unemployment rates at 32%.The lingering inequality, with poverty and joblessness disproportionately affecting the Black majority, threatens to unseat the party that promised to end it by bringing down apartheid under the slogan of a better life for all.“I take voting as something serious because as communities, it is difficult to complain about services when you have not voted,” said Samuel Ratshalingwa, who was near the front of the queue at a school in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, where President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to vote.“Our main issue here in our community is the lack of jobs. We have to use the vote to make our voices heard about this problem,” said Ratshalingwa.
After winning six successive national elections, several polls have the ANC’s support at less than 50% ahead of this one, an unprecedented drop. It might lose its majority in Parliament for the first time, although it’s widely expected to hold the most seats.
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