Johannesburg, South Africa – The stadium overflowed with yellow, green and black as tens of thousands of African National Congress (ANC) faithful gathered in Soweto for the final rally of the 2024 election campaign.

Billed as the Siyanboqo Rally, a word derived from Zulu that means “we conquer” or “we win”, the atmosphere on Sunday was no different from the dozens of ANC rallies I have attended during decades of reporting in South Africa.

But this election is a different one from the six that preceded it since apartheid ended in 1994. This year is a crucial vote for the governing party that polls say risks losing its majority for the first time in 30 years.

At my broadcast position high above the enormous stage, I spoke to several ANC leaders – all of whom were confident the organisation was going to hold on to power.

It would get more than 50 percent of the votes and there was no thought of having to form a coalition and govern with another party or other parties, officials said.

Among those I spoke to was the Minister of Electricity Seputla Ramogopa, who said: “There have been missteps, but the people do have an appreciation that the South Africa of today is better than the one of pre-1994.”

Among those “missteps”: a gradual breakdown of the country’s power grid under the ANC government, which has resulted in constant “load-shedding” when electricity is switched off to numerous areas at a time because there is simply not enough power being generated to meet demand.

The power issues are just one of the examples that critics of the ANC use to contend that the party has failed to deliver on its many promises, and that it is time to drive it out of power.

‘What am I voting for?’

A short drive away from the celebrating crowds and leaders at the stadium is the low-income Soweto suburb of Kliptown.

Here, little has changed for residents since the ANC came to power 30 years ago.