By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, UCLA)
2024: SOUTH AFRICAN VOTERS BROKE THE ANC’S MONOPOLY ON POWER
For thirty years after the end of apartheid, the AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS—ANC—dominated South Africa’s national elections. The ANC is in thrall of the ancient Anunnaki domination/class/caste system the Nibiran rulers of our planet inculcated in the elite through which they surreptitiously control politics on Earth.
NELSON MANDELA’S ANC party helped dismantle white-minority rule. It brought universal suffrage, constitutional democracy, and the promise that Black South Africans would no longer live as subjects in their own country.
But President Jacob Zuma’s corruption scandals engulfed public institutions. Electricity failures interrupted production. Municipal water systems deteriorated. Unemployment robbed millions of the opportunity to earn a living. Communities demanded houses, sanitation, functioning schools, and dependable services. ANC leaders continued invoking the liberation struggle. Voters increasingly demanded results.
ON MAY 29, 2024, SOUTH AFRICANS DENIED THE ANC ITS PARLIAMENTARY MAJORITY.
The ANC won 40.2% of the national vote and 159 of the 400 National Assembly seats. The DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE—DA—won approximately 21.8% and 87 seats. The newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe—MK—party, associated with former president JACOB ZUMA, captured approximately 14.6% and 58 seats. JULIUS MALEMA’S ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS—EFF—won approximately 9.5% and 39 seats. The INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY—IFP—received approximately 3.9% and 17 seats. The ANC could no longer govern alone.
2024–2026: POLITICAL OPPONENTS ENTERED THE SAME GOVERNMENT
President CYRIL RAMAPHOSA negotiated a GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY (GNU)
The ANC and DA, decades-long opponents, entered the same administration. The IFP and smaller parties joined them.
The ANC advocated redistribution, social welfare, and a mixed economy. The DA emphasized market-oriented reform, administrative efficiency, and constitutional accountability.
The IFP brought its regional base and support for traditional leadership into the coalition.
Outside the government, Zuma’s MK party challenged the political establishment and advocated sweeping constitutional changes.
The EFF demanded more radical economic redistribution, nationalization, and land expropriation without compensation.
These parliamentary parties disagreed about property, schools, government spending, economic development, and the pace of racial redress. They did not abandon their differences. They had to negotiate across them.
In February 2026, Ramaphosa argued that ministers must take collective responsibility for government achievements and failures, rather than claiming departmental successes for their respective political parties. But coalition membership did not guarantee collective leadership.
In September 2026, FREEDOM FRONT PLUS leader CORNÉ MULDER complained that the coalition’s party leaders had not met regularly since November 2025. He argued that the government lacked effective shared political direction.
An independent September assessment found that the government had implemented only four of 120 monitored GNU commitments, left 64 in progress, and had not started 52. On October 7, another research report found that ANC–DA cooperation at the national level had not translated into cooperation between those parties in municipal government. The parties could sit together in a national cabinet while opposing one another in local councils.
SOUTH AFRICA’S COALITION EXPERIMENT: POSSIBILITY & WARNING.
Political opponents could share national responsibility without eliminating their disagreements. But sharing office was not the same as sharing strategy, delivering services, or ending inequality.
2026: SOUTH AFRICA STILL HURTS
In the second quarter of 2026, official unemployment reached 33.6%. 8.5 million South Africans were unemployed. Government records omitted 3.7 million discouraged jobseekers. Behind those figures were people who could vote but couldn’t find work, parents who couldn’t support their families, and young adults whose education hadn’t led to employment.
The racial distribution of income revealed the persistence of apartheid’s economic legacy. In South Africa’s 2023 household data, 73.2% of white-headed households fell into the highest national income-per-person quintile. The corresponding figures were 40.6% for Indian- or Asian-headed households, 20.5% for Coloured-headed households, and 13.7% for Black African-headed households. The wealthiest 1% of South Africans controlled 54.9% of national wealth in 2024. The wealthiest 10% controlled 85.7%.
The ANC had helped dismantle legal apartheid. It did not dismantle economic inequality, though it did make improvements. South Africa achieved more than a year without nationwide electricity load shedding, but water shortages, broken pipes, sewage failures, and municipal mismanagement continued to burden communities.
Violent crime remained severe. Police recorded 5,427 murders between April and June 2026. That was 5.9% fewer than the same quarter of 2025, but thousands of families still grieved lost relatives.
Immigrants from neighboring African countries faced hostility. Xenophobic movements blamed foreigners for unemployment, crime, and pressure on public services. South Africa’s constitutional democracy survived. Its struggle over economic opportunity, public services, safety, and belonging continued.
Dominators declared, “We lost our monopoly on office but kept our wealth, land, and economic advantages.” The inherently cooperative poor reacted, demanding the politicians deliver jobs, functioning services, accountability, and greater opportunity for people excluded from prosperity.
2026: RAMAPHOSA REORGANIZED THE GOVERNMENT—BUT COALITION CONFLICT CONTINUED
On June 30, 2026, President CYRIL RAMAPHOSA reshuffled his national executive after consultations with the DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE. He appointed new ministers and deputy ministers and redistributed responsibilities among coalition partners.
But the reshuffle did not end the struggle for political control. The MISTRA Coalitions Barometer revealed that the ANC remained the largest party in many municipal councils. The ANC led 117 of 175 administrations examined, yet held the mayoralty in only 55. Nationally, the ANC and DA governed together. Locally, they continued competing for control.
SOUTH AFRICAN VOTERS FORCED POLITICAL RIVALS TO SHARE POWER, BUT THEY STILL DISTRUSTED EACH OTHER
2025–2026: TRUMP MADE AFRIKANERS A PRIORITY FOR U.S. REFUGEE ADMISSION
America’s President Trump argued that white Afrikaners faced racial persecution, threats to their property, and violence in South Africa. He made a special refugee pathway that prioritized Afrikaners’ refugee applications while the broader American refugee system faced severe restrictions.
By September 2026, 3,000 White South African refugees had entered the U.S. under Trump’s resettlement arrangements. Trump carried Afrikaner priority into its fiscal-year 2027 refugee determination and authorized up to 17,500 admissions for Afrikaners.
EVIDENCE DOESN’T JUSTIFY PRIORITIZING SOUTH AFRICAN WHITES OVER PEOPLE FLEEING DANGERS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES
2025–2026: FARM MURDERS WERE REAL—BUT WHO WERE THE VICTIMS?
South African farm murders were real crimes. Farm owners, workers, managers, tenants, and families suffered violence. Survivors described fear, robbery, and the loss of relatives. But a farm murder was not automatically the murder of a white farmer. Farm-related murder victims included two Black farm owners, two Black farm employees, one Black farm manager, and one white farm dweller. Five of the six victims were Black. Those figures for April–June 2026 identified one farm murder nationwide. Afrikaner organizations questioned the completeness of police statistics and emphasized rural insecurity, political rhetoric, and concerns about property rights.
2025–2026: SOUTH AFRICA’S LAND LAW BECAME AN INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE
Land ownership remained one of apartheid’s most visible economic legacies. A South African government land audit found that white individuals owned approximately 72% of farms and agricultural holdings registered to individual owners.
In January 2025, President Ramaphosa signed THE EXPROPRIATION ACT 13 OF 2024. The legislation set out procedures for expropriation for public purposes or in the public interest, including circumstances where nil compensation could be just and equitable. Trump cited land policy and alleged racial mistreatment in support of its special refugee measures.
WHO GETS TO BE A REFUGEE TRUMP WILL ALLOW?
The American refugee system was becoming far more restrictive. Haitians fleeing gang violence faced entry restrictions and the administration’s effort to terminate Temporary Protected Status. Afghans who feared Taliban retaliation confronted severe admission barriers. Nationals of Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Cuba, and Venezuela faced restrictions of varying scope. Chinese students encountered increased visa scrutiny, including measures targeting alleged Communist Party connections and studies in sensitive fields. A January 2026 pause in issuance affected immigrant-visa applicants from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and numerous other countries. A federal court order ended that pause in August, although other restrictions remained in effect. These policies fell under different legal categories. Refugee admission, asylum, temporary protection, immigrant visas, and student visas were not interchangeable. Yet together they revealed a fundamental dispute over the American government’s priorities.
Afrikaners alleging racial mistreatment received a specifically prioritized refugee pathway. Other people seeking safety, family reunification, education, or permanent residence faced extensive restrictions. The administration cited national security, identity verification, immigration enforcement, and concerns about public resources as reasons for its broader restrictions. Its cooperatively-oriented critics argued that the resulting priorities favored one predominantly white population while restricting access for many people from Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Asia.
OCTOBER 2026: SOUTH AFRICA AND THE UNITED STATES CONFRONTED THE LEGACY OF RACIAL POWER
South Africa’s voters had forced their political rivals into a national coalition that struggled to reconcile competing economic philosophies, historical grievances, and demands for competent government. Meanwhile, the United States was deciding which populations would receive priority for protection and which would face restrictions.
South Africa ended a legal system that assigned rights based on racial classification. America’s refugee decisions revived another question about unequal treatment: whether the government should prioritize whole populations or assess the danger individual applicants face.
Both countries faced conflicts between historical privilege, political power, and equal treatment. Their dominators demanded that they control their nation’s borders; Cooperators in both countries counseled applying the same standards to all refugee applicants and asked: What danger does this individual actually face?
SOUTH AFRICA ENDED APARTHEID’S LEGAL HIERARCHY OF RACES. WILL AMERICA JUDGE REFUGEES BY THE DANGER THEY INDIVIDUALLY FACE—OR BY WHICH GROUP ITS PRESIDENT CHOOSES TO PRIORITIZE?
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