South Africa celebrates 108 years of epic fail
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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...173029998.html
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The power is off, again, in South Africa six years after the first major consumer crisis of the state-owned power company, Eskom. The notorious "load shedding" schedule - portioned power cuts caused by failing electricity plants - was introduced to the nation's households again last week. This means blackouts of at least four hours a day continue to affect people's lives. In December, Ramaphosa announced power cuts would only occur from the second week in January.
Despite the many challenges facing the nation, the ANC is eager to spread a message of hope this Saturday. "We are going to look at the weaknesses and shortcomings. That's why we will give South Africans hope that things will be better tomorrow," ANC's Secretary-General Ace Magashule said to the media on Monday. Looking at the state of the nation, there is a lot to hurry up about for the governing party, which finds itself at the centre of the many immediate problems haunting the once celebrated "rainbow nation".
Besides external factors such as the crippling blackouts, a peaking unemployment rate of 29.1 percent, even worse among the youth where in the last quarter of 2019 it passed 58 percent, rising levels of inequality and a staggering economy, the party is haunted by internal conflicts that are a major obstacle on the way forward.
This makes it hard to tackle any of the country's problems which, according to Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Johannesburg, outgrow party politics. "They are symptoms of broader problems in the society," he said.
"The Zuma years", characterised by scandals of state capture and a growing internal division, have translated into the ANC losing ground among its electorate with the party missing the 60 percent mark last year for the first time.This was seen as a significant blow for the party that remains the one and only party many black people in South Africa would ever cast their ballot for - for loyalty reasons and a lack of other options given the weak opposition with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the EFF.
It was during the nine years under Zuma that "panic among the voters" spread, says Goodman Dinga, once a loyal ANC voter whose faith in the leadership has faded. "It was good under [first President Nelson] Mandela. And good under [second President Thabo] Mbeki. Now, people don't trust in the ANC any more, because there are no jobs and corruption is everywhere," Dinga said. "People eat what they find in the bins, they sleep on the doorsteps because there are no jobs. Politicians are busy pointing at each other instead of looking after the people."
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