Ahead of elections this year, South Africa's main opposition party merged with a smaller group today to jointly challenge a ruling party whose immense popularity, buoyed by its anti-apartheid credentials and close ties to Nelson Mandela, has frayed amid corruption scandals and other problems.
In a racially charged barb, the ruling African National Congress said the new coalition's choice of presidential candidate was a "'rent a black'" ploy to present a diverse front to voters.
The candidate is Mamphela Ramphele, who was the partner of Steve Biko, the Black Consciousness leader who was tortured and died in police custody in 1977. Ramphele, who has been an activist, doctor, academic and World Bank executive, last year formed her own party, named "Agang" or "Build" in the Sesotho language, but struggled to gain political momentum and now has linked her group with the larger Democratic Alliance party.
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Whatever the outcome, South Africa is entering a more fluid era in which the ANC, in power for 20 years and likely to win again this year, although possibly with a smaller majority, is increasingly prone to political attack. On the other end of the opposition spectrum is Julius Malema, the expelled head of the ANC's youth league and now leader of an upstart party that wants to redistribute wealth to the poor.
The upcoming election, whose date has not been set, is the first in democratic South Africa since the death of Mandela, the former prisoner under apartheid who became president in South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994 and died December 5 at the age of 95. Some South Africans have questioned whether the death of this unifying figure will lead to increased factionalism as political forces jostle for influence in a country that is still shaping its post-apartheid identity.
"The death of Nelson Mandela has changed many things for South Africa," Ramphele said at the Cape Town announcement. "It has caused us to reflect on our journey over the last 20 years, on the progress we have made, and on the opportunities utilized and lost."
President Jacob Zuma and the ANC, once led by Mandela, have lost some support because of corruption, poverty, unemployment, police brutality and a lack of adequate government services. One analyst, however, warned that while some people are wavering in their support for the ANC, the party remains a potent force and any claim that the new opposition alliance is a political game-changer is overstated.
"South Africans will forgive the ANC many things," said Susan Booysen, a political analyst at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
