THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN

The votes have been cast, counted and announced, but is South Africa ready for a new government? The experts think so

- NASIFA SULAIMAN

THEY'VE been called the most important elections since 1994 an opportunity for voters to change the trajectory of South Africa and put an end to ANC domination.

And now here we are, on the precipice of change. The ANC is no longer the majority party and coalition is the only way forward.

Even people who usually aren't all that interested in politics have been falling down the rabbit hole, immersing themselves in one story after the other as the powers that be hunker down to decide the future of South Africa.

The elections show the ANC ran out of steam and didn't produce any political answers during their time in absolute power, says political analyst Professor André Duvenhage. "Now we need to level the playing fields and find other solutions and get other ways of thinking on the table." As the nation stands at a fork in the road - exactly who the ANC will go into coalition with we ask the experts to unpack what the elections mean and how the political landscape has changed.

'WHEN YOU HAVE A MULTIPARTY GOVERNMENT, LEADERS WILL ASSUME STEWARDSHIP OF EACH OTHER'

The reason for the success of the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party is because of the rise in identity politics, which is when people of a particular religious or ethnic group form political alliances.

A large percentage of voters in KwaZulu-Natal and other areas of the country where predominantly Zulu people live voted for Jacob Zuma's party because they identify with him as Zulu.

Zuma's following is significant, says Damien du Preez, research coordinator at the Centre for Research Democracy at Stellenbosch University.