ANC keeps power in South Africa but scandals cost it votes

JOHANNESBURG: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa led the African National Congress to victory in Wednesday's election, but a drop in its share of the vote underlines the challenge he faces restoring confidence in his party.

"We've made mistakes, but we are sorry about those mistakes, and we are saying our people should reinvest their confidence in us," Ramaphosa said on Wednesday after casting his ballot in the Soweto township where he grew up.During the campaign he had crisscrossed the country, trying to convince disillusioned voters to give the ANC another chance. Many are frustrated that huge racial disparities in income and wealth persist 25 years after the end of apartheid.

But analysts and some ANC party sources are sceptical."There will still be a significant fightback from the Zuma faction which will restrain Ramaphosa," said Darias Jonker, director for Africa at Eurasia Group, a New York-based political risk consultancy. A massive strike led by Ramaphosa's union in 1987 taught business that"Cyril was a force to be reckoned with," said Michael Spicer, a former executive at Anglo American."He had a shrewd understanding of men and power and knew how to get what he wanted from a situation," Spicer said.

Some historians say Mandela wanted Ramaphosa to be his heir but was pressured into picking Thabo Mbeki by a group of ANC leaders who had fought apartheid from exile.After missing out on becoming Mandela's successor, Ramaphosa withdrew from active political life in 1997.

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