'Blinded By Love', Some S. Africans Keep Faith In ANC

Johannesburg, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd May, 2024) South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) faces its toughest electoral challenge yet at next week's parliamentary vote, but the fierce loyalty of its remaining supporters should save it from a humiliating rout.

Thirty years after the advent of democracy, many voters are disillusioned by the ANC's record in office, but millions are not willing to let go of what the late Nelson Mandela's party symbolises.

"Before the ANC rescued us we were treated as sub-humans in our own country... we were nothing," Gugulethu Sigcau told AFP in Johannesburg ahead of the May 29 vote.

"So there is no reality where I will vote for anyone else."

According to the 71-year-old pensioner, black people, especially those who lived through apartheid, should be voting for the ANC because they led the struggle that "liberated our kind".

Some households are split by age between those who remember the ANC's victory in the struggle against apartheid and a younger generation that knows the party through its patchy record in government.

Personal trainer April, 38, no longer talks about politics with his 62-year-old mother. "She doesn't even understand how anyone could consider voting for a party other than the ANC," he said.

He has not decided which opposition party will get his backing, but he's done with the "self-serving" ANC.

But even if many of his compatriots share his disappointment, millions in the secrecy of the voting booth will put a cross by the ANC's name -- and polls suggest they could get more than 40 percent.

South Africans vote in parliamentary elections next Wednesday, in what is expected to be the tightest vote since democratic rule was introduced after the defeat of apartheid.

Poor services, a prolonged energy crisis and a buckling economy have left many citizens embittered with their government.