LyrArc Article Gist
The ANC wins 62.2% of the vote in South Africa's 2014 general election.

LyrArc Article Gist
A series of attacks against foreign businesses takes place in South Africa. High unemployment and the failure of the African National Congress governments under recent presidents Mbeki and Zuma to tackle deep inequalities and poverty have aggravated tensions. The violence was seen in Johannesburg and Pretoria. This has worsened relations between South Africa and Nigeria, Tanzania. My Cyril Ramaphosa of the African National Congress was elected president after the dismissal of the former president. Ramaphosa in a national address recalled the support received from African nations in the struggle against Apartheid. Slow growth and high unemployment with corruption, in Nigeria and South Africa two dominant economies in Africa, have increased tensions and rivalry between the two countries. For South Africa trading ties to the continent are important. About 44% of agricultural exports of $3.9 billion go to African nations, increasing from 30% in the prior decade.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The need for an effective opposition and an alternative to the African National Congress party in South Africa. The Democratic Alliance party which it is estimated can get about 30% of the vote, as an alternative.

LyrArc Article Gist
This indepth report from the Economist looks at the damage done in 9 years of rule under Jacob Zuma, and the prospects of the African National Congress under the new leadership of Cyril Ramaphosa. The South African economy suffered under Jacob Zuma. The Zuma government hurt the government's finances, and suffered from corruption and mismanagement. Only 21% of South Africans trust their government in one poll. This indepth report also asks the question- how much has changed since the days of Apartheid South Africa? Mandela's release from prison in 1990, and the ANC party winning elections in 1994 changed South Africa into a multi cultural and multi ethnic society with democracy. A liberal constitution protects the rights of all of South Africa's communities and citizens. Share of households without electricity fell from 42% in 1996 to 10% in 2016. Black people make up 50% of the middle class. Blacks now make up more buyers of suburban homes than whites. Race relations are better today. The problem is that progress and improvement in living and economic conditions stalled after 2009 when Jacob Zuma as head of the African National Congress became president. GDP per person declined after 2013. Half of South Africans were born after the end of Apartheid in 1994. Nearly 40% of people of age 15-34 are not in work, training or education. To get into the middle class one needs a job. About 62% of South Africans would trade democracy for an unelected leader who could deliver on housing and jobs and the economy. Cyril Ramaphosa was made president and head of the ANC after a bruising struggle to oust Jacob Zuma in 2017 ANC conference. He now faces elections in May 2019. In the 1980's he led the National Union of Mineworkers. He later became secretary general of the ANC in the 1990's and led talks for democracy. Ramphosa was passed over by Mandela because of pressure within ANC to select Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki was followed by Zuma, also from ANC. Ramaphosa then joined business, as a small number of well connected black South Africans and made $450 million through preferential access to equity in large firms for a few black South Africans. Then went back to the ANC as deputy president,  then deputy president of the country. The Economist says after Zuma South Africa is running out of time, and Mr. Ramaphosa expected to win, faces many challenges, particularly youth unemployment. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Support for Mandela's African National Congress, the ANC, has dropped as it fails to manage the economy for growth to meet aspirations of young people. Support dropped to below 40% and a majority for ANC in parliament is unlikely in the upcoming election. The pandemic hit South Africa hard and the weak economy, lack of growth, high unemployment, are serious problems.

LyrArc Article Gist
South African youth interviewed in this report by Devon Maylie and Patrick McGroarty following the death of Nelson Mandela, say the African National Congress and its current leaders have failed to live up to the ideals set by Mandela.

LyrArc Article Gist
Young South Africans, the so called born frees- born after the end of Apartheid and free elections in 1994- are diillusioned with the African National Congress of Nelson Mandela. They are disssatisfied with the lack of jobs, a poor education system, and tired of the corruption scandals under former president Jacob Zuma. A recent IPSOS poll shows only 55% of 18-24 year olds supporting the ANC compared to 61% overall. Some polls showed support dropping from born frees to below 50%. Almost half of the 58 million people of South Africa are born frees. Their view is expressed by one mother of three living in a shack in Alexandra Township in Johannesburg. She says we tried the ANC but are still living in squatter camps and dirty places. Only the ANC's reach into rural areas, its superior organization, and lack of viable alternatives, are likely to keep the ANC back in power. The Economic Freedom Fighters led by Mr. Malema, a former head of the ANC youth wing is likely to double its vote to 12% from the last election.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Zakes Mda, a South African describes the Nelson Mandela of 1944 in the living room of his father Ashby Peter Mda, and Mandela's protest agianst the African National Congress of that period. He compares it with the African National Congress of Jacob Zuma in 2013. Maylie and McGroarty of the WSJ and other journalists interviewing young black South Africans in Johannesberg in Dec. 2013 also finds them saying they would not vote again for Zuma and the ANC. Mda describes the disillusionment on South African university campuses with the corruption of the Zuma administration.

LyrArc Article Gist
As Jacob Zuma resigns on Feb. 14, 2018, he leaves behind a South Africa in which the African National Congress is no longer the party that Nelson Mandela led in the struggle against Apartheid. South Africa's economy and governance has suffered during his 9 year rule. Corruption and mismanagement of the economy during this period led to the ANC forcing Zuma to resign a year and half before his term expires. He is replaced by Cyril Ramphosa, the deputy president of the ANC, an anti-apartheid leader who became a businessmen with ANC connections.  A black lower middle class failed to see the promises made by the ANC realized under successive ANC leaders Mbeki and Zuma. Police action against miners during a strike in 2012 led to the growing belief that the ANC leadership had distanced itself from its roots among ordinary South Africans. In recent years Zuma was unpopular in Gauteng province which includes the large cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Appointment of loyalists with little experience to senior positions in the cabinet and state companies including state utility Eskom and South African Airways, led to poor management and corruption. A case relating to use of $650,000 in public funds for upgrading a Zuma homestead led to a court case and impeachment proceedings. In the 2016 local elections the ANC lost in the major cities. leading to a sense that the ANC's rural vote could not ensure winning half the vote in the upcoming 2019 elections.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Lydia Polgreen and Marcus Mabry talk to black and white South Africans in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Afrikaaner Orange Free State. The National Party which started Apartheid as state policy in 1948 and the African National Congress were both founded in Bloemfontein. The accounts provide insights into race relations in South Africa and the growing gap between the economic condition of black and white people. After free elections and about 20 years of ANC governments under Mandela, Mbeki, and Zuma, progress has been made in primary and secondary schooling but most blacks are falling behind in the skills needed in a modern economy as shown by the widening income gap from $17,000 in 2001 to $30,000 in 2011. Less than 40% of South Africans socialize with other races, according to SA Reconciliation Barometer. 22% of whites and 20% of blacks live in racially integrated neighborhoods. 11% of white children and 15% of black children attend integrated schools. The result is a South Africa where a lot remains to be done after Mandela....

LyrArc Article Gist
Protests by US members of Congress against the surcharge fees charged by the IMF on loans to countries such as Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine, South Africa, and other countries that is causing additional distress during the pandemic. Fund estimates are that almost $4 billion in extra fees will have been collected in addition to interest charges by the IMF. The US pays the largest share of IMF revenues. Letters went to Janet Yellen, US Treasury Secretary from members of US Congress saying that the fund was a lender of last resort but intended to do this "without resort to measures destructive of national and international prosperity."

LyrArc Article Gist
A sense of entitlement and hold on power can be seen throughout Africa. A lack of the kind of education that creates an ethic of responsibility for the educated and ruling classes, an honest civil service, and experience with and development of democratic institutions with their own checks and balances, account for some of the principal reasons for this failure in government. Even in South Africa, which has experienced several elections and is on the path to gaining experience in democratic government, Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress display some of these tendencies of entitlement to power.

LyrArc Article Gist
In over a decade after Mandela the A.N.C. under Jacob Zuma sees its vote drop from 62.5% to below 50%. The opposition Democratic Alliance wins 27% of the vote and the A.N.C. loses in the important cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth. South Africa's urbanization is proceeding rapidly with the country 65% urban today. In this situation the country is seeing a political situation of racially diverse cities voting against the A.N.C. under Zuma's administration, which is seen as corrupt and mismanaging the economy. Zuma is seeing his support now left mostly in the rural areas. He is also losing the support of women. Mmsi Maimane is a young black lay preacher, who leads the Democratic Alliance, a party with its origins in liberal politics during the Apartheid era, with participaton of whites, coloreds, Asians and blacks in urban areas.

LyrArc Article Gist
South Africa's president Jacob Zuma faces another no-confidence motion in parliament. This time the Speaker of parliament has ruled that the members will vote in a secret ballot, so that members of the ANC do not face reprisals for voting against the government. Corruption scandals in the government and Zuma's association with the Gupta family has led to a loss of confidence in the Zuma government. The economy has suffered since the resignation of the finance minister, and the country's credit rating was changed to junk status.

LyrArc Article Gist
Jacob Yuma as leader of the African National Congress in the post Mandela period for South Africa- what kind of leadership will he provide after he ousted Mbeki from a third term as ANC President.