South African Local Government Elections 2016: The ANC Loses Control of Major Metropolitan Centers

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 22 Aug 2016 by Iraj Abedian

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At last much of the post-election tension, deal-making, and coalition speculation is over. Today, the opposition parties, made primarily of Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), took control of South Africa's economic and financial capital- the Johannesburg Metropolitan. This was preceded by last week's success of the same opposition parties taking over the governance of the country's capital city of Tshwane (Pretoria) and amongst others, the Nelson Mandela Metro, and Mogale City. These developments have deepened the country's young democracy, and shaken to the core the dominant ANC Alliance party. Corruption and arrogance have become the defining attributes of the ANC government over the past decade. Herman Mashaba, the well-known, wealthy and successful entrepreneur, and the newly elected executive mayor of Johannesburg, pronounced corruption as enemy number one under his mayoral term. He committed his government to the promotion of business enterprise, job creation, and urban renewal. These political changes have exceeded all expectations, reflecting the intensity of opposition from both the right of the center(DA) and the left of the center (EFF) to ANC leadership's abuse of political power and patrimonial practices. However, both DA and EFF have a rough road ahead. Not only do they have to learn to work with each other with vastly different ideological differences, but also they need to learn how to govern. EFF is a new party, participating in local elections for the first time. At the same time, they have to still work with the national government, controlled by the ANC. South Africa has clearly entered a new era of coalition politics, and...