The Cape country has become an international player. After the spring elections, a new era could begin: the end of the ANC's absolute power.
Green is considered the fashionable color in the South African summer. Green like hope. At Oliver Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, named after one of Nelson Mandela's comrades-in-arms in the fight for freedom against apartheid, airport staff move around in green shirts, the “Springboks” jersey. The “Springboks”, players of the national rugby team, won the World Cup trophy for the fourth time in 30 years, in Paris, at the end of October.
The victory sparked a euphoria – like the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the height of the Mandela era – that gave hope to the Cape regional powerhouse in a precarious economic situation. He united the torn “rainbow nation,” where class differences outweigh racial differences and where the relationship between rich and poor is harsher than anywhere else on the continent. A rising black class of “Black Diamonds”, as they are popularly known, has long been established.