Into the darkness, or else the light?

With the world’s eyes firmly on tragic African states, such as Zimbabwe, it is often easy to forget about the problems faced by other African nations. This is not so for the South African population.

When South Africans go to the polls on April 22nd, they will not just be voting for a new government. They will also be voting for the kind of South Africa they want from here on in. This will be the third democratic election since 1994. In that time South Africa has gone from being a relative beacon of the southern continent (and indeed the entire continent) to being a country once again on the edge.

Their presumptive president is mired in sleaze. In recent years the ANC has been viewed negatively, both by party members and the country as a whole and in late 2008 this led to several previously loyalist members resigning from the party and setting up a rival party: the Congress of the People. This means that the ANC can no longer take its electoral victory for granted.

Putting aside the political volatility, South Africa is also riven by social problems and economic problems, which were on the boil even before the economic turbulence hit.

For these reasons, no matter what the result on the 23rd April is, to many ordinary South Africans, the Mandela era of hope and prosperity must seem a rapidly fading memory.