President Mbeki promises to fight poverty
The former liberation movement was assured a two-thirds majority in parliament, winning 69% of Wednesday's vote with more than 95% of ballots counted. In KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC faced a strong challenge from the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the race looked close. But in all nine provinces the ANC scored ahead of its rivals.
Analysts said the vote showed trust in Mbeki's promise to extend the fruits of Africa's powerhouse economy to the black majority, which, 10 years after the end of white rule, remains plagued by unemployment, AIDS and crime.
Mbeki who campaigned on the slogan "a better life for all" promised yesterday that South Africa's voters would not be disappointed.
"It's quite clear that the ANC has got the overwhelming support and confidence of the people of South Africa. It poses a challenge to the ANC not to disappoint the expectations," he said during a tour of Pretoria election centre.
"The ANC has a duty, absolutely, to do all of the things it has said it will."
With the national vote clear, attention focused on KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC and the IFP were in a tight race with 92% of votes counted. The eastern province around the port city of Durban was a major battleground, pitting the ANC's drive for national dominance against the Zulu-based IFP's determination to hold the only province under its control.
Yesterday, the ANC was leading with 45.82% of the vote counted, compared with 38.31% for the IFP. But the province was left with no majority winner and both parties were looking for coalition partners.
Africa's biggest economy is growing faster than it did under apartheid, but income disparities are among the widest in the world, unemployment stands at 40%, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic infects an estimated one out of nine South Africans. Mbeki has promised a million new jobs over the next five years by spending $15 billion on public works, transport and telecommunications infrastructure. After long delays, the government this month launched a public AIDS treatment program with life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.
