The general election in South Africa is being treated by western countries both as a sentimental milestone — remember Nelson Mandela’s post-apartheid Rainbow Nation? What happened to the glory days of 1994? — and as part of a continuing lament about the poor governance of the continent.
That’s largely fair criticism. But it overlooks this election’s geopolitical undercurrents: the way South Africa’s ruling African National Congress was flattered into strategic alignment with some of the most dodgy autocrats on the world stage, and pressed into service as a vital bridge to the global south to mobilise opposition to western order.
The ANC has won six straight elections over the past three decades. The mood tipped from optimism into dismay and cynicism at roughly the halfway