South Africa questions its very being. Yet a difficult change has reinforced its young democracy

By GERALD IMRAY
Associated Press

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa is in a moment of deep soul-searching after an election that brought a jarring split from the African National Congress party. The ANC is the party of Nelson Mandela and the very organization that gave South Africans freedom and democracy 30 years ago. In the days after the vote that ended its majority, South Africans were dealing with essential questions over not just where they were going, but what they’d achieved in their young democracy since bringing down the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. Yet amid the introspection, some urged South Africans to be proud that the momentous change had come through a strong democratic process.