The elections are over now in South Africa and the ANC won the elections by sweeping 65.9% of the votes. The fact that the ANC did not get the two thirds majority vote need to be able to change the constitution is seen by financial analysts as a good thing. The ANC themselves may not be too concerned about not winning a majority vote as they probably have no intentions of changing the constitution but investors may see this as a good thing. Investors tend not to be keen on one-party states.

Many analysts are expecting the economy to remain the same even if Jacob Zuma is the president of the country. It is very unlikely he will make drastic changes to economic policy. The first thing Zuma may want to do is to make sure that Trevor Manuel and Tito Mboweni remain in their respective positions of minister of finance and reserve bank governor. These two have in many peoples eyes been behind the relative success of the South Africa economy.

What is critical though is that we as South Africans should not think we are immune to the global economic crisis. I have heard many people thinking that what is happening in the USA and Europe will not happen in South Africa. I beg to differ. We could possibly head the same direction as those countries currently struggling, if economic policies are not kept in check and thus the importance of good governance.

A lot of eyes are going to be focusing on the ANC in the upcoming months to see how they deliver. More so now that there is a larger opposition presence in National Assembly committees as well as a significant DA and COPE presence in the National Council of Provinces. The ANC failed to win the Western Cape vote which went to the DA. It will be interesting to see how the ANC handles the Western Cape as it is one the most richest and important provinces in South Africa economy.

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