EDITORIAL: Leaders will be under pressure to deliver
We are entering a new kind of democratic era, but it is unclear if the outcome will turn SA around
As SA heads through the uncertain and anxious weeks while we wait for a new government to be formed, and the uncertain and anxious months and years that might lie ahead, we should not lose sight of the fact that democracy works in SA. That is a big achievement by the standards of many developing countries and even some advanced countries. The party that dominated for 30 years accepted the election result in a chilled sort of way; so did everyone else other than, bizarrely, the party that was a surprise winner: Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK).
But it is a new kind of democratic era for SA and there is no question we are in for difficult times. The question is whether the outcome will help to turn SA around. Will it arrest its economic decline and ever poorer public services and improve the quality of people’s lives or will it take us backwards? The jury is still very much out, even if the prospect of a government of national unity (GNU) is gathering surprisingly broad supp...
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