Some of these problems go back to the colonial era, while a great many others were either created or sustained during the apartheid era. After 25 years in power, the ANC draws intense criticism for South Africa’s persistent poverty, inequality, violence, health crises, and corruption.Īs he works to renovate South Africa, new president Cyril Ramaphosa faces a daunting list of tasks: jump-start economic growth, shrink the debt, build functioning, law-based governance, and hold together the ANC when it seems to be coming apart at the seams. Today much of that initial promise remains unfulfilled. Mandela casting his ballot for the first time in his life in 1994. The inhumane apartheid regime seemed to be miraculously ending peacefully, though much work remained to improve the lives of all South Africans. In April 1994, South Africans of all races voted in the country’s first democratic elections, choosing Mandela as their first black president. President Frederick de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shaking hands at the World Economic Forum in 1992. While political violence between the ANC and rival factions remained a fact of life, it could not squelch the nation’s optimism. In 1991, the future of South Africa held tremendous promise.Īfter decades of the brutal, legalized racial segregation called apartheid, Nelson Mandela had been freed from prison, the ban on the African National Congress (ANC) had been lifted, and negotiations for a new constitution had commenced.
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