South Africa announces general election date

South Africa will hold its next general election on April 14th, President Thabo Mbeki announced in parliament yesterday.

The election will be the nation’s third since apartheid ended a decade ago.

Mr Mbeki’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) is expected to retain power, with the president likely to receive backing by the 400 members of the national assembly to carry on into a second five-year term.

The new president is expected to be sworn in on April 27th, 10 years after Nelson Mandela became the country’s first black president in April 1994.

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South Africa’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) led by Tony Leon, and the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi have formed a coalition to challenge the ANC.

The coalition says South Africa is a “shadow of democracy” given the ANC’s political domination.

The ANC rules in seven of South Africa’s ten provinces. In the Western Cape province it is coalition with the New National Party, a renamed version of the National Party which ruled in the apartheid era.