Twenty Years of Democracy and Challenges

The 1994 elections implemented democracy into South Africa’s government. This allowed for many parties including the African National Congress (ANC), the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), and other parties to run for office (Southall 1994). With these elections, the ANC was able to convert “itself from a movement of liberation into the predominant party of power” (Southall 1994: 643). Over the past twenty years of democracy the ANC has retained this position of power and currently holds the highest percentage out of all the parties in South Africa’s parliament. However, even though South Africa has transformed into a democratically run government there has been many political and socio-economic challenges that have threatened South Africa over its twenty years. Three prominent problems that the ANC and South Africa has dealt with and currently deals with are the economy, public health, and the high-levels of corruption.

Economic Challenges

As the ruling party, the ANC is in control of parliament and therefore must address the issues and challenges that arise. One of the challenges that has been very noticeable throughout the past twenty years is the economy and wealth distribution of South Africa. Even though South Africa has “the largest, most diversified, and highly industrialized economy in Africa” it doesn’t compare too much of the rest of the world (Cook 2013: 1). The country’s financial growth has been sufficient in recent years and the development and access to education throughout the racial groups has increased (Cook 2013).

However, the challenges that the country faces because of the economy are greater than its advancements. Despite the post-apartheid socioeconomic progresses, ...

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