By Farai Mutsaka
In Southern Africa, where democracy remains relatively stable, elections held in 2024 saw long-governing liberation parties struggling to survive.
Across Africa, power struggles involving military governments, coup attempts and armed conflict are common, but the southern region has largely been more stable and elections in some countries brought joy and hopes of a better future.
Not so much though for some long-governing parties. The decades-old goodwill of liberating their countries from colonial rule appears to be giving way to frustration over economic problems and limited opportunities for young people in the region.
As voters become younger, and without personal memories of colonialism, which ended before they were born, liberation struggle-era parties in Southern Africa lost power or were given a wake-up call in 2024.
For many young voters, performance of the government matters more than historic liberation struggle era credentials that these parties have relied on to
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