PRETORIA, South Africa — The leader of South Africa’s long-dominant ANC was treated like a president-elect Saturday after his party swept parliamentary elections — though not with the two-thirds majority it won easily in the last vote.
A split in the ANC and questions about Jacob Zuma’s fitness to govern after sex and corruption scandals no doubt contributed to the party’s loss of support. But Zuma insisted that he was not disappointed, telling reporters: “We have won a decisive majority.”
Zuma appeared live on state television to deliver a 20-minute speech in which he promised to speed delivery of jobs, houses, schools and clinics to the black majority that was denied so much under apartheid and which has seen slow change since the ANC first took over in 1994.
