Why South Africa's Over the Rainbow

Tainted by scandal and accusations of corruption, the ruling ANC is no longer the moral force it was under Nelson Mandela. It will win the nation's fourth democratic general election, but angry voters have plenty to grumble about

Photograph for TIME by Benedicte Kurzen / VII MENTOR

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On a warm summer's day in mid-January, South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, held a rally in East London on the country's southern coast to launch its campaign for re-election. Inside the city's stadium, in a pen between the stage and a sea of supporters in the ANC colors of yellow, black and green, stood the party's VIPs. Many of the men wore Gucci and the women Prada, but mixed in with them were 60 or so people, of both sexes, in combat fatigues whose camo caps identified them as veterans of Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"),...

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