The election coincided with the 10th anniversary of the April 1994 nonracial, democratic election, which registered the burial of the white-minority apartheid regime following decades of mass struggle led by the ANC. About 76 percent of those registered to vote showed up at the polls. Some 15,861,000 people voted compared to just over 15,977,000 in 1999.
The scope of the ANC victory was rooted in the partys history as the standard-bearer in the battle against apartheid, and its non-racial program. As the ruling party for the last 10 years it has committed a large percentage of the state budget to meet basic needs in the poorest urban and rural areasfrom building houses to electrification and water provision. This effort resounds with a growing section of the population.
The governments 2004 budget states that 1.6 million houses and 700 new clinics have been built since the ANC came to power. Nine million people have gained access to water and an additional four million homes are now supplied with electricity.
Unemployment, however, is 31 percent, according to government figures. Unofficial estimates put it as high as 40 percent.
The ANCs economic policies have also found favor with capitalists here. A great many wealthy companies and individuals now find it expedient to give it their support because the party is best placed to defend their investments and interests. The owners of the factories and mines have enjoyed a relatively stable economic environment for profit-making. Inflation, for example, has averaged about 7 percent since 1993, half of where it stood the previous decade.
Business support for the ANC found clear expression in the parade of major corporations that donated funds to political parties on a proportional basis. The ANC, being the largest party, received the largest hunk of the funding. So, for example, Anglo American Corporation donated 3 million rands (about $460,000) to the ANCs election coffers. Banks, telecommunications companies, and other mining houses did the same.
This election witnessed the complete collapse of the New National Party, formerly the National Partythe party of apartheid. The NNPs support plummeted from 6.8 percent in 1999 to less than 2 percent. It has fashioned itself as a liberal party and for five years it has served in provincial and national coalition governments with the ANC.
In this election the NNPs supporters continued to flee into the arms of the rightist Democratic Alliance (DA), which calls itself the official opposition. Largely as a result of this exodus from the NNP, the DAs support grew from 9.6 percent of the vote in 1999 to 12.4 percent this year.
Support for the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), whose backing has always been based on a Zulu nationalist appeal, continues to dwindle, including in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal province. The IFPs support dropped from 8.6 percent in 1999 to less than 7 percent this year.
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