South Africa: corruption, crime and jobs top issues as voters go to polls
South Africans began voting on Wednesday in the most competitive election since the end of apartheid, with opinion polls suggesting the African National Congress (ANC) will lose its parliamentary majority after 30 years in government.
Polling stations opened around 7 a.m., with voters queuing at some locations including Hitekani Primary School in the vast township of Soweto near Johannesburg, where President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to vote later.
Security guard Shivambu Yuza Patric, 48, came straight to the polling station after working a night shift. He said he had not voted in the previous election because he had lost faith in the ANC.
“They do nothing for the people,” he said. He said he would decide at the last minute who to vote for but was leaning toward small opposition party ActionSA.
Then led by Nelson Mandela, the ANC swept to power in South Africa’s first multi-racial election in 1994 and has won a majority in national elections held every five years since then, though its share of the vote has gradually declined.
If it falls short of 50 per cent this time, the ANC will have to make a deal with one or more smaller parties to govern — uncharted and potentially choppy waters for a young democracy that has so far been utterly dominated by a single party.
The ANC won 57.5 per cent of the vote in the last national election in 2019, its worst result to date and down from a high of nearly 70 per cent of the vote 20 years ago.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty with what’s going to happen. Are we going to have a coalition?” asked student and first-time-voter Amena Luke, 19, as she waited to cast her ballot at Berario Recreation Centre in Johannesburg.
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One-third of adults out of work
The ANC is still on course to win the largest share of the vote, meaning that its leader Ramaphosa is likely to remain president, unless he faces an internal challenge if the party’s performance is worse than expected.
Voter dissatisfaction over high rates of unemployment and crime, frequent power blackouts and corruption in party ranks lies behind the ANC’s gradual fall from grace.
The unemployment rate has hit 32 per cent, with poverty and joblessness disproportionately affecting the Black majority, who make up 80 per cent of the population of a multiracial country with significant populations of white people, those of Indian descent and those with biracial heritage.
There were 27,494 killings in South Africa in the year to February 2023, compared with 16,213 in 2012-2013. That’s a homicide rate of 45 per 100,000 people, compared to 6.3 in the U.S. and 2.25 in Canada.
The nine years of Ramaphosa’s predecessor, Jacob Zuma, were defined by what South Africans call “state capture” after an inquiry pointed to systemic corruption in which well-connected business people plundered state resources. The 82-year-old Zuma is legally barred from standing for parliament due to a jail sentence, but has formed a party, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), that could conceivably be part of a coalition government.
Ramaphosa succeeded Zuma as party leader in 2017 and faced questions after a large amount of cash was found hidden in furniture at his game farm. He has denied wrongdoing and was not charged with any crimes but his reputation took a hit from the incident dubbed “Farmgate.”
Turnout in South African elections has gradually dropped over the years as disenchantment with the ANC set in.
Voter wants ‘fresh minds’
Outside the polling station at Midrand High School, in a northern suburb of Johannesburg, voters waited in a long line that stretched down the street and around the corner. Some were wrapped in blankets to fend off the morning cold.
“I voted for the EFF and that’s because I need fresh minds in parliament,” said Andrew Mathabatha, 40, a self-employed engineer, who arrived early to vote there.
The Economic Freedom Fighters are a party founded by Julius Malema, a firebrand former leader of the ANC’s youth wing. The EFF wants to nationalize mines and banks and seize land from white farmers to address racial and economic disparities.
More than 27 million South Africans are registered to vote at more than 23,000 polling stations located in schools, sports centres and even a funeral parlor in Pretoria. Voting will continue until 9 p.m.
Voters will elect provincial assemblies in each of the country’s nine provinces, and a new national parliament, which will then choose the next president.
Among opposition parties vying for power is the pro-business Democratic Alliance, which won the second-largest vote share in 2019 and has formed an alliance with several smaller parties to try to broaden its appeal.
The election commission is expected to start releasing partial results within hours of polling stations closing. The commission has seven days to announce final results, but at the last election — also held on a Wednesday — it did so on a Saturday.
Published at Wed, 29 May 2024 11:34:11 +0000
Pope Francis apologizes over use of homophobic slur, Vatican says
WARNING: This story contains vulgar language.
Pope Francis, widely quoted as having used a highly derogatory word to describe the 2SLGBTQ+ community, did not intend to use homophobic language and apologizes to anyone offended by it, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
It is extremely rare for a pope to issue a public apology.
“The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologizes to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others,” Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said in an emailed statement.
Italian media had reported on Monday that Francis used the Italian term frociaggine, roughly translating as “faggotness” or “faggotry,” as he told Italian bishops he remained opposed to admitting gay people into the priesthood.
Italian political gossip website Dagospia was the first to report the alleged incident, said to have happened on May 20, when the pontiff met Italian bishops behind closed doors.
Bruni said Francis was “aware” of the reports. The Vatican spokesperson reiterated that the Pope remained committed to a welcoming church for all, where “nobody is useless, nobody is superfluous, [where] there is room for everyone.”
His reported comments caused shock and consternation, even among his supporters.
Vito Mancuso, an Italian theologian and former priest, told the daily La Stampa that Francis’s language was “despicable and surprising because it blatantly jars” with his previous messages on LGBTQ issues.
Andrea Rubera, the spokesperson for the Italian Christian LGBTQ+ association Paths of Hope, says while he knows community members are disappointed over Pope Francis’s use of a homophobic slur, he firmly believes the incident should not drive a wedge between them and the church.
Francis, 87, has been credited with making substantial overtures toward the 2SLGBTQ+ community during his 11-year papacy.
In 2013, at the start of his papacy, he famously said: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” Last year, he allowed priests to bless members of same-sex couples, triggering substantial conservative backlash.
Back in 2018, Francis admitted making “grave mistakes” in the handling of a sexual abuse crisis in Chile, where he initially dismissed as slander accusations against a bishop suspected of protecting a predator priest.
“I apologize to all those I have offended and I hope to be able to do it personally in the coming weeks, in the meetings I will have [with victims],” he wrote in a letter to Chilean bishops.
Published at Tue, 28 May 2024 14:06:46 +0000
