Much at Stake in South Africa’s Most Significant Election Since End of Apartheid

A man stands against a wall covered with election campaign ads on April 11, 2019, in Alexandra, South Africa. Wikus de Wet/AFP/Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG—Ten million people unemployed. A national debt of more than $200 billion. A nation ravaged by almost a decade of extensive corruption. Collapsing water and electricity services.

Political parties sowing racial discord in a country still haunted by its apartheid past. Radicals encouraging land invasions. The most unequal society in the world according to the World Bank, with more than half of the population of 58 million living in poverty and a tiny elite controlling extreme wealth.