COLIN COLEMAN: Rise or fall: SA at a crossroads as ANC decides
This week’s Big Read is free to read. Outcome of elective conference will make or break our fortunes
The world will be watching next weekend - hot on the heels of the exit of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Angola's José Eduardo dos Santos - for further dramatic regional developments as the ANC elects new leaders for the next five years. The highly contested ANC leadership election may determine if South Africa's democratic project, and economic prosperity on the continent, thrives or stutters, and its choice of leaders will be a leading indicator of whether Africa will be a force for progress or instability in the world in the decades ahead. South Africans today shoulder the burden of three years of, on average, 1% economic growth. Half its 54million people live in poverty and a third of its economically active population are unemployed. South Africa's "two-speed society" is characterised by a nonracial, affluent urban elite living side by side with marginalised communities that include a growing army of unemployed young people. So what do the candidates offer to tackle these challen...
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