South Africa votes in era of disillusionment

South Africans lined up before dawn Wednesday in chilly temperatures for an election expected to slightly narrow the ruling party’s large parliamentary majority, yet still result in the installation of controversial leader Jacob Zuma as president.

A large turnout was reported, and in some areas election officials ran short of ballot papers and had to call for more. Results were expected today.

Despite Zuma’s extraordinary political comeback from corruption charges filed in 2005 -- and dropped two weeks ago -- the African National Congress faces its toughest challenge since it took control in the nation’s first democratic vote in 1994. Many South Africans are disillusioned by continuing high unemployment, crime and a shortage of adequate housing.

For the first time, the ANC faced a sizable black opposition party, the Congress of the People, or COPE, formed by former ANC members. The other major opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, is led by a white woman, Helen Zille.

The South African president is elected by the parliament, and Zuma is expected to be voted in to office early next month. Yet for some voters, the early euphoria of democracy has faded.

“Actually, I don’t know why I’m voting,” said Victoria Jonathon, 27, who had waited hours to cast her ballot. “I’m still staying in a shack! That makes me very angry!”

She voted for the ANC, but said it would be the last time unless there is real change before the next national election. “I don’t see change in five years, no change. I won’t vote ANC again, I’ll vote for someone else.”

Gigi Mafifi, 33, an insurance salesman, said he usually votes ANC but decided to cast his ballot in favor of a small opposition party.

“The quicker the small parties grow, the better it is for South Africa,” he said. “I haven’t got anything against the ANC and COPE, but I think they need to be shaken up. We need to shock them a bit.

“Once the ANC doesn’t have the majority in the parliament, they’ll start to listen.”

On the other hand, Solomon Mapheto, 59, a pensioner, said he will always support the party. “I voted ANC because they stopped apartheid. I don’t see any other party for me but the ANC.”

The ANC won 69.7% of the vote in the 2004 elections. Opinion polls suggest that this time it will get about two-thirds of the vote -- the critical level required for it to change the constitution at will. The Democratic Alliance’s campaign slogan, “Stop Zuma,” urged voters to deprive the ANC of a two-thirds majority.

The party’s support remains strong among voters in deprived townships such as Diepsloot, even as some complain of ankle-deep water when it rains. But for the first time, some, such as Siyanda Sdlulene, 28, were shunning the party.

“They don’t do all the promises they said they will do. I voted for COPE. I hope that maybe things will change.”

Sdlulene, who fixes tires and earns about $260 a month, added: “People are walking around with guns shooting people for no reason. I’d like to have a better job, and to have security. And some more building of houses and infrastructure.”

Most of the poor and jobless still reflexively voted ANC “because they believe in Nelson Mandela,” he said, referring to South Africa’s first democratically elected president. “They see him as their hero, and I think that’s why they vote ANC.”

Edigan Malale, 29, said he was often abused and jeered at when he wore his Democratic Alliance T-shirt around the township, with many deriding the party as being for whites.

“It’s mostly black people around Helen Zille as the leader,” he said. “So that brings in hope.”

In the upscale neighborhood of Killarney, far from the dusty streets and the shacks of Diepsloot, Mandela’s supporters waited hours for a glimpse of him as he arrived to vote amid cheers and ululating.

Frail and stooped, the man who has come to personify the struggle against apartheid was so thickly flanked by party officials that a group of elderly supporters couldn’t see the face they’d waited for.

After voting, he left the polling station, beaming at the cameras.

Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, who fought apartheid and headed South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, voted in Cape Town. He said recently that he was not looking forward to having Zuma as president.

Tutu said Wednesday that many people had voted for ANC automatically, but that was changing.

“I feel good, but it isn’t like the previous elections. That is true of so many people who are having to ask questions. It’s good for democracy,” he said.

Zuma was charged with corruption in 2005 in relation to a multibillion-dollar arms deals, and was acquitted of rape in 2006. Prosecutors recently dropped the corruption charges, citing outside interference in their timing.

Marlyn Abrams, a white psychologist voting in Killarney, was concerned about the charges being dropped.

“I think he is a bit of a disaster. He’s a buffoon, unintelligent, populist. He has avoided facing it [the corruption trial]. He’s avoided clearing himself, although he said he wanted to.”

Boris Yawitch, company director, also had concerns, but was optimistic about South Africa’s future.

“I don’t think he’s the right caliber to be a leader, but I don’t think Ronald Reagan was either,” he said.

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robyn.dixon@latimes.com