The Decline of a Dominant African Political Party: The Case and Future of South Africa's African National Congress (ANC)

Abstract

This paper investigates increasing claims that the ANC as South Africa's dominant party is losing its popularity and facing political decline. This is against the backdrop of growing disenchantment with the ruling party over a series of corruption cases, perceived poor service delivery and mal-governance characterizing the Jacob Zuma-led government. However, it is argued in this paper that there are no clear signs of the ANC losing the 2019 elections. Nevertheless, the party risks disintegration — as experience shows in other countries — if it does not effectively address issues relating to corruption, mal-governance and factionalism. The study is based on a careful reading of qualitative data from secondary sources including previous studies in journal articles and books, credible newspaper and magazine reports and institutional documents.