(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam).
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At a polling station in Century City, Cape Town, voters began arriving early in the morning. South Africans are voting in municipal elections in which the ruling African Nat.
Zuma survived an impeachment vote in April after the Constitutional Court said he breached the law by ignoring an order to repay some of the $16 million in state funds spent on renovating his private home. Voting in Cape Town, retired archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said it remained an “honor for a black person to vote in this country” following the end of white minority rule.
The polls opened at 7 a.m. local time and are scheduled to close at 7 p.m., with final results expected to be announced on August 6.
Opinion polls see a close race in the capital Pretoria, economic-hub Johannesburg and other key cities, alongside the symbolic Nelson Mandela Bay municipality named after the anti-apartheid icon. Its main rival is the Democratic Alliance, which has governed Cape Town since 2006, won 18 councils in 2011 and took 22 percent of the national vote in 2014.
While the DA’s pledge to make it easier to do business is diametrically opposed to the EFF’s call for the nationalization of mines, banks and land, both parties have said they are open to forming coalitions with each other but not the ANC, increasing the likelihood of municipalities falling into opposition hands.
Still widely credited for ending white minority rule, the ANC now faces nearly daily demonstrations over the failure of the government it leads to fulfill promises to create jobs, address poverty and improve living standards. “The global economy is bad, not just South Africa”.
“What I’d like from our government is for them to build schools for us here, and give us permanent housing here, because we are struggling”, said Johana Makga, a voter in the Pretoria area.
The elections were seen by many as being the most contested since 1994.
In March, Mr. Zuma was again embroiled in controversy, with government officials alleging corruption between Mr. Zuma and one of South Africa’s most prominent business families. The president has denied any wrongdoing.
The ruling African National Congress – a party that contains a broad spectrum of political philosophies from free- market liberalism to communism – has successfully weathered many political storms during its 22 years in power. The killings could be linked to a struggle for the resources and patronage that come with top municipal jobs, according to election experts. More than 2,000 military personnel are deploying to help the police ensure a peaceful vote.
Lihle Spani, a voter in Johannesburg, recalled that black South Africans were unable to vote during apartheid and that voting was a kind of tribute to those who had lacked basic rights.
Mmusi Maimane, a former preacher from Soweto who leaders the DA, said the ANC had abandoned his values, which only he could now be trusted to take forward.
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Associated Press videographers Nqobile Ntshangase and Renee Graham contributed.
