Middle East and Africa | Long walk to nowhere

How race and politics interact in modern South Africa

Why the ANC’s losses are not the official opposition’s gain

John Steenhuisen leader of the Democratic Alliance speaking in Pretoria, South Africa
It’s gonna be mePhotograph: Getty Images
|JOHANNESBURG

For the Democratic Alliance (da), South Africa’s largest opposition party, the election on May 29th should be a golden opportunity. For the first time since it came to power in 1994 the African National Congress (anc) may lose its national majority. After 30 years many voters are fed up with some of the world’s highest rates of unemployment, inequality and murder. But the da is still struggling to persuade them that it is a better alternative.

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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Long walk to nowhere”

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