African National Congress The party lost its parliamentary majority in a historic election on Saturday that puts South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system under white minority rule 30 years ago.
More than 99% of votes have been counted. the once dominant ANC won just over 40% in Wednesday’s election, far short of the majority it has enjoyed since the famous 1994 all-racial vote that ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela.
The final results are yet to be officially announced by the Independent Electoral Commission, but the ANC is unable to secure 50% of the vote and an era of coalition government – also a first for South Africa – is looming.
The Election Commission said it would officially announce the results on Sunday.
While opposition parties hailed the result as a major breakthrough for a country struggling with deep poverty and inequality, the ANC remained in some ways the largest party.
However, the unprecedented decline in her support means she will now likely have to seek a coalition partner or partners to remain in government and re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa to a second and final term. Parliament must meet to elect the President of South Africa within 14 days of the announcement of the election results.
“The way to save South Africa is to break the ANC majority, and we have done that,” said John Steenhuisen, leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance party.
Julius Malema, leader of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters party, said the ANC’s “right to be the single dominant party” had been lost.
The path forward threatens to be difficult for Africa’s most developed economy, and there is no coalition on the negotiating table yet. At the start of the negotiations, the three main opposition parties and many smaller ones took part.
“We can talk to anyone and everyone,” ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe told national broadcaster SABC.
Steenhuisen’s Democratic Alliance received about 21% of the vote. New MK party former President Jacob Zuma, who turned against the ANC he once led, was third, with just over 14% of the vote in the first election he contested. The Economic Freedom Fighters came in fourth with just over 9%.
More than 50 parties participated in the elections, many of them received tiny shares, but the three main opposition parties seem the most obvious for the ANC to come closer.
Electoral commission chairman Mosotho Moepya said it was time for everyone to remain calm “and for leaders to lead and the voices of reason to continue to prevail.”
“This is a moment we need to manage and manage well,” he said.
Steenhuisen said his party was open to negotiations with the ANC, as was Malema. The Knesset Party said one of the conditions of any agreement is Ramaphosa’s removal as leader and president of the ANC. It underscored the bitter personal political battle between Zuma, who stepped down as South Africa’s president amid a cloud of corruption allegations in 2018, and Ramaphosa, who replaced him.
“We are willing to negotiate with the ANC, but not with Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC,” said MK party spokesman Nhlamulo Ndlela.
MK and the far left Economic Freedom Fighters called for the nationalization of parts of the economy.
Centrist Democratic Alliance, or DA, is considered good for business. Analysts say an ANC-DA coalition will be more welcomed by foreign investors.
The DA has been the most critical opposition party for many years and does not share the ANC’s pro-Russian and pro-China foreign policies. Next year, South Africa will assume the presidency of the G20 of industrialized and emerging economies.
An ANC-DA coalition “would be a wedding of two drunk people in Las Vegas. It will never work,” Gayton McKenzie, leader of the small Patriotic Alliance party, told South African media.
The DA says the ANC-MK-EFF agreement will be a “doomsday coalition” as MK and EFF are made up of former ANC figures and will pursue the same failed policies.
The combined share of the three opposition parties was greater than that of the ANC, but it is unlikely that they will all work together. The DA was also involved in a pre-election agreement with other smaller parties to potentially form a coalition.
In the midst of all this, there was no sense of celebration among ordinary South Africans, but rather the realization that a rocky political road lay ahead. The Daily Maverick left one South African scratching his head, saying: “What does this mean for our future?” on its first page. Die Burger began by depicting the logos of about a dozen political parties going into the meat grinder.
South African opposition parties were united in one thing: something had to change in a country of 62 million people that is the most developed in Africa, but at the same time one of the most unequal in the world.
The official unemployment rate is 32%, and poverty disproportionately affects black people, who make up 80% of the population and have been the core of ANC support for many years. The rate of violent crime is also horrifyingly high.
The ANC is also blamed – and now punished by voters – for failing to deliver basic public services. it affects millions poor and leaves many without water, electricity or adequate housing. More recently, the national electricity crisis, which has resulted in nationwide blackouts, has angered South Africans across the board.
Over the past 20 years, the ANC has seen its support decline steadily, but by about three to five percentage points every election. This time it fell by 17 percentage points from the 57.5% achieved in 2019, a staggering result in the context of the country.
According to the Electoral Commission, about 28 million South Africans were registered to vote and turnout was expected to be around 60%.
People lined up on a cold winter night on Election Day and hours after polls officially closed, with some votes being cast at 3 a.m. the next day. This demonstrated the desire of many to voice their opinions, but also reflected one of Congenital problems in South Africa — There were delays at some polling stations due to a power outage that plunged them into darkness.