The African National Congress (ANC) emerged from South Africa’s 1999 election in a greatly strengthened position. Now, not only is the constitutionally obligatory five-year period of a government of national unity over—which means that the ANC as the majority party is entitled to rule the country on its own—but the ANC increased its already strong majority in Parliament to just short of two-thirds.

In this article, we first discuss the context of the political debate in which the election took place, as well as the outcome of the election. We then examine the prospects for the consolidation of democracy in South Africa in light of the election results and in relation to the issues surrounding electoral procedure, a dominant party system, and opposition politics within the context of a still very much racially divided society.

Two days before South Africa’s national election on June 2, 1999, Business Day—the country’s “quality” national daily newspaper—pronounced that “on balance” its vote was going to the African National Congress (ANC) for the job it had done since 1994. The government’s performance could have been better, it opined, but it could also have been a lot worse:

The result of South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994 had something in common with a successful children’s birthday party. It was clear from the beginning whose day it was and where the bulk of the spoils would go, but the failure of the African National Congress (ANC) to win a two-thirds majority consoled the others. And those guests who might have spoiled the occasion with tears and tantrums were rewarded too, with control of provincial parliaments in Kwa-Zulu-Natal and the Western Cape, as well as positions in a government of national unity. These factors helped to make the 1994 election an occasion for general, not just partisan, rejoicing.

Divorced from the euphoria and sense of relief that attended the 1994 poll and robbed of any uncertainty about the outcome, observers of 1999’s election have had to work much harder to read its significance.

South Africa’s 1999 election presented the country’s opposition parties with a number of serious challenges. For the three years before this second democratic election, opposition parties had been building up their hopes for 1999 as the year when the African National Congress (ANC) colossus might start shedding support and create space for opposition growth. Instead, the 1999 election fragmented the opposition, halved the size of the single biggest opposition party, annihilated opposition parties in most of the ANC-controlled provinces, and strengthened the ANC in the two opposition-controlled provinces. It also brought enhanced cooperation between the ANC and precisely those opposition parties that might have given credibility to a realigned opposition movement.

More than one million more women than men registered to vote in South Africa’s second democratic election in 1999. The election saw 29.8 percent of seats in the national legislature (or 119 out of 400) going to women (up from 27 percent in the previous Parliament and in stark contrast to the less than 3 percent of women parliamentarians prior to 1994). Eight ministers and eight deputy ministers in South Africa’s new Parliament are women. The new cabinet has women in charge of nontraditional portfolios, such as foreign affairs, public service, mineral and energy affairs, communications and land affairs, in addition to health and housing. This doubles the number of female members compared to the previous executive.

South Africa’s second democratic national election has been heralded as generally “free and fair” and a significant step toward the consolidation of the nation’s 1994 democracy. However, five years after the replacement of apartheid with full citizen participation and the recognition of equal rights for all, South Africa remains largely divided by race. Despite the overall peacefulness and tolerance that marked the election on June 2, 1999, and the general assumption that the country is moving away from race-based politics, the issue of race proved to be far from insignificant in both the campaigns of the various political parties and the patterns of voter support. Although most parties went to extensive lengths to prove their commitment to multiracialism and claimed support across the racial spectrum, few had much success in transcending the historical divisions of the electorate.

South Africa’s second democratic elections in June 1999 represented an important step on that country’s path to “normality,” to political pluralism, as opposed to the racial oligarchy of the past. At the same time, the clear victory of the African National Congress (ANC) underscored the dominant-party nature of South African politics. Despite the party’s overwhelming victory, however, it had to contend with a number of challenges, most notably from within its Eastern Cape heartland. This article explores the nature of party competition in the Border Corridor of the province by examining both the 1999 election results and the results of a detailed opinion survey conducted in the area in late 1998. Sandwiched between the former homelands of the Transkei and Ciskei, the corridor is of considerable importance given its geographical location and political history. The district encompasses greater East London, the provincial capital of Bisho, and King Williams Town.

Back in the bad old days of the mid-1980s, when we in South Africa thought we were fighting a revolutionary war, we liked to believe in a slogan that some of us attempted to put into practice. The slogan (and there were many variations of it) went something like this: “In a truly democratic society, ordinary people should have control over all aspects of their lives.” This slogan embraced a philosophy of participatory democracy that was in constant tension with the militarism, secrecy, and intolerance on the other side of the liberation movement. It expressed a deep humanism, a belief that people were capable of living unselfishly and of acting collectively, not just in times of crisis and mobilization, but daily.