South Africa to Hold Elections on May 29
The Facts
Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa's office on Tuesday proclaimed that South Africa will hold elections for the National Assembly, which elects the president and provincial legislatures in the country's nine provinces, on May 29.
Ramaphosa seeks to secure a second and final five-year term in the seventh fully democratic national election in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994, all of which his party — the African National Congress (ANC) — has won by a clear majority.
The Spin
Narrative A
If political parties are really focused on the best interests of South Africa, the ideal outcome of the upcoming general election would be a pragmatic coalition between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance. While the former has institutional knowledge and wide popular support, the latter has proven managerial experience in Western Cape province and Cape Town.
Narrative B
Previous coalition experiences in local-level politics have shown that power-sharing arrangements in South Africa effectively immobilize the government and degenerate into a blame game. Given the near irreconcilable ideological divide between the leftist ANC and the pro-West Democratic Alliance, their alleged "inevitable" coalition would be a complete disaster.
