Zumas ANC

The African National Congress has lived up to expectations and carried South Africans with it to what looks like a decisive victory. It may even get two-thirds of the votes thats more than what was expected. And yet,it wasnt supposed to be so easy after all. This election was special; the most important since Nelson Mandela overthrew apartheid in 1994 and ushered in more representative democracy. One reason for that was the birth of what could have been the first major black-led challenge to the ANC,and the consequent maturing of South African democracy. Secondly,the man almost certain to be president long before the polls,Jacob Zuma,is an unknown executive entity despite his controversial personal and political past. That is,regardless of hopes and fears,its not certain exactly which way hell take the country. Thirdly,South Africa is a beacon and yardstick for the continent. How Africas most robust economy handles the recession,how it fights institutional and political corruption,its high crime rate and poverty,how it deals with an increasingly visible ethnic divide,will colour the decisions of other African governments.

But 15 years since the anti-apartheid revolution succeeded,the ANC is reeling under its historic burden. It is still the instinctive political home for the overwhelming majority of South Africas blacks. But switching to a governing role from a revolutionary one calls not just for adjustment but for the remaking of a party. So while the ANC has delivered to many of the poor,it still fails the rest. It is plagued by allegations of corruption and nepotism,so much so that Archbishop Desmond Tutu vowed not to vote ANC this time. That was the plank on which the Democratic Alliance and the Congress of the People Cope which broke away from the ANC,led largely by ousted former President Thabo Mbekis supporters challenged it. In fact,it was the numbers at the last Cope rallies that scared the ANC to rope in Mandela as a self-endorsement.

Now that the people have decided,it is for Zuma whose populist,socially conservative and economically leftist streaks are feared by many to deliver on his promise of no nasty surprises. He could begin by curtailing his cult and focusing on administrative and policy challenges.