South Africa’s Political Future Hanging by a Thread

JOHANNESBURG—South Africa’s future will be defined this week when political parties meet to thrash out a power-sharing deal following the country’s historic election on May 29. The vote shattered the majority enjoyed by the African National Congress (ANC) since South Africa’s first multiracial poll in 1994 when it received only 40 percent of the vote. The electorate punished the party for decades of corruption, economic mismanagement, spiraling violent crime, high unemployment, poverty, and service delivery failures that left citizens without electricity and water for days, sometimes weeks. With 159 out of 400 National Assembly seats, the ANC cannot form a government alone, as it has done for the past 30 years, and must rely on support from opposition parties....