South Africa needs a broader choice of leadership options

ACROSS SOUTHERN Africa self-styled liberation parties have proved adept at clinging on to power. Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe are all still run by the parties that took office after the end of white rule. The ANC, which came to power last among its peers, has also proved stubbornly enduring.

Despite presiding over a lost decade, opinion polls suggest that it will retain power at the elections on May 8th. The average support for the party in the eight publicly available opinion polls published since Cyril Ramaphosa became president is 56.4%. That would be a drop from its performance in the 2014 national elections (62%), but re-election nevertheless.