A year after Mandela’s death, a gloom has descended on South Africa

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On Friday morning, to mark the first anniversary of Nelson Mandela's death, South Africans will ring bells, blare sirens and blow vuvuzelas for three minutes. That cacophony will be followed by three minutes of silence.

The entire event – six minutes and seven seconds – is meant to symbolize the 67-year political career of the anti-apartheid hero who helped liberate South Africa from the oppression of white-minority rule. It will be followed by prayers and political speeches at a memorial service, where the lofty rhetoric will flow like wine.

Mr. Mandela's final farewell last year, and the national mourning that followed, was an occasion for noble sentiments and soaring eloquence about the great struggles of the past. Much of it was genuinely moving and inspiring, creating a sense of hope for the future. A year later, however, South Africa's mood is far more pessimistic. The speeches on Friday won't displace the gloom that has descended on the country this year.

That national gloom is often, quite literally, a darkness in the streets. South Africa's national electricity monopoly is running short of power, due to bad planning, poor maintenance and mismanagement of its expansion program. So the lights go out – more often than before. My own street in Johannesburg has suffered a series of blackouts in recent weeks – as have most other streets in most other neighborhoods of the city.

The country is coping, but it's a blow to the national mood. It brings back bad memories of 2008, when South Africans were plagued by months of "load-shedding" (the bureaucratic euphemism for the rolling blackouts that begin when the state electricity company decides to "shed" the burden of demand from homes and factories). It rattles the confidence of a country that likes to think of itself as a highly modern society and a proud member of mighty global clubs like the G20 and the BRICS alliance.

The power shortages are also damaging the South African economy, reducing industrial production and deterring foreign investors who need a reliable supply of electricity for their factories or mines.

South Africa's economy is already stagnating. It nearly slipped into recession this year after a devastating strike in the platinum mining sector. Unemployment remains high, and labour unrest is continuing. The latest example is the national post office, which has become a national embarrassment after its workers have repeatedly gone on strike for several months at a time.

The most recent postal strike, featuring violent protests and the torching of postal vehicles and buildings by angry workers, persisted for four months and left behind a massive mountain of undelivered mail that the post office is still struggling to clear away – at a cost of untold damage to charities, small businesses, students and other vulnerable groups that can't afford the price of courier services.

The glow of the 2010 World Cup has long dissipated. Tourists had flocked to South Africa for the global soccer tourney in 2010, and the country seemed to rise into a mood of bliss and harmony – partly because of a massive increase in police recruits, which reduced crime for a while. But crime rates have now begun climbing again, and fears of crime are soaring. The country was traumatized in October by the shocking murder of soccer hero Senzo Meyiwa, captain of the national soccer team, in an apparent robbery attempt. The grief and anger consumed the country for weeks.

Politically the mood is even worse. The ruling African National Congress won re-election in May, but its majority was reduced, and it nearly lost control of the economic heartland, Gauteng province, where Johannesburg and Pretoria are located. The election also marked the rise of a fiery new opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, which has thrown parliament into turmoil.

The EFF refuses to play by the parliamentary rules. Its MPs are notorious for heckling, jeering and insulting ANC leaders, and refusing to obey the parliamentary speaker, who vainly tried to expel them from the chamber. The attempted crackdown on the opposition party has turned parliament into a shambles. ANC leaders, losing their tempers at the EFF's antics, ordered a squad of riot police to barge into parliament to remove unruly members – a shocking breach of political freedoms. They also switched off the parliamentary cameras to censor the most embarrassing moments of the crackdown.

Most recently, the ANC's political base has been severely shaken by the defection of a major trade union, which plans to create its own political party to oppose the government.

At the top of it all is President Jacob Zuma, who has presided over a long series of corruption scandals and economic failures. He has refused to answer a full set of questions in parliament since November 2013, despite rules requiring him to respond to questions at least once every parliamentary term. He also flagrantly defied an investigation by an independent official, the Public Protector, who found that he had personally benefited from inflated state expenditures on the palatial village estate at Nkandla where he and his four wives live. After he denied that he had benefited from the state spending, the ANC insisted that he didn't need to bother repaying any of the money.

The Nkandla controversy has infuriated many South Africans, who see their President seemingly immune from justice. But the ANC responded, instead, by attacking the widely respected Public Protector and portraying her as a disloyal enemy.

Mr. Zuma's personal connection to many of South Africa's worst scandals has become a symbol of the country's political and economic decline. When a secret (and costly) nuclear-power deal was struck between South Africa and Russia this year, it was Mr. Zuma's mysterious trip to Moscow that foreshadowed the deal. When a cabinet minister tried to reform the government's money-losing national airline, the minister's decisions were openly defied by the airline's chairwoman – who was widely reported to be an "intimate" friend and housemate of Mr. Zuma himself.

In another damaging revelation this year, the South African media reported that Mr. Zuma's lawyers had defended him against earlier corruption charges by claiming that corruption was a "Western paradigm" with "no victims."

With a fresh electoral majority, Mr. Zuma is likely to remain as president until 2019. But his role in some of South Africa's most notorious scandals is contributing to the growing national malaise. The Nelson Mandela anniversary on Friday will only serve as a reminder of how badly the country has deteriorated since the heroism of the Mandela years.