How the ANC can save South Africa

The demise of post-colonial liberation movements is frequently messy – but it is ultimately essential. It may be worth remembering this in the months ahead as South Africa charts a new course in the wake of the

shattering electoral setback for the ruling African National Congress (ANC)

. It is a moment of great peril – but also, after a decade and a half of drift and dysfunction, of promise.

Whether via force, skulduggery or lack of viable opposition, liberation movements tend to cling on to power long after they have forsaken the idealism of their early days in office.