Parliament of South Africa
African National Congress: The ANC was created in 1912, but became the leading political party after the end of apartheid in 1994. Its main platform rests on racial equality and eradicating the socioeconomic classes which are often based on race. The ANC has been considered a party for native South Africans, especially before 2009 when party leader President Zuma faced multiple accusations regarding corruption, particularly using public funds for his own purposes. The economic struggle of South Africa as well as the police brutality have both been blamed on the ANC. Currently the ANC holds 249 seats in parliament. Support for the ANC went down between the 2009 and the 2014 elections, with violent protests erupting all over the country in response to the allegations of corruption within the ANC.
Music in the movement against apartheid
There was significant resistance to this system, both within and outside South Africa. Opposition outside the country often took the form of boycotts of South Africa. Within the country, resistance ranged from loosely organised groups to tightly knit ones, and from non-violent protests to armed opposition from the African National Congress. Through this entire process, music played a large role in the resistance. Music had been used in South Africa to protest racial segregation before apartheid began in 1948. The ANC had been founded in 1912, and would begin and end its meetings with its anthem "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", an early example of music in the resistance to racial segregation. Another such example was "iLand Act" by R. T. Caluza, which protested the Native Land Act, and was also adopted as an anthem by the ANC. Commentator Michela Vershbow has written that the music of the movement against apartheid and racial segregation "reflected [the] widening gap" between different racial groups and was also an attempt "to communicate across it". Music in South Africa had begun to have explicitly political overtones in the 1930s, as musicians tried to include African elements in their recordings and performances to make political statements. In the 1940s, artists had begun to use music to criticise the state, not directly in response to racial segregation, but as a response to persecution of artists. Artists did not see their music as being directly political: Miriam Makeba would state "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth".