Mandela’s party loses majority for the first time in 30 years

Johannesburg:The African National Congress (ANC) lost its parliamentary majority in a historic election result on Saturday that puts South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago.

With more than 99 per cent of votes counted,the once-dominant ANC had received just over 40 per cent in Wednesday’s election,well short of the majority it had held since the vote of 1994 that ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela.

The final results are still to be formally declared by the independent electoral commission that ran the election,but the ANC cannot pass 50 per cent. At the start of the election,the electoral commission said it would formally declare the results by Sunday.

The loss of support for the ANC will usher in momentous change for the country. The ANC has been dominant for all 30 years of the country’s democracy and it is the only governing party many people have known.

The party could now be forced to look to form a coalition to remain in government – something that has never happened in post-apartheid South Africa. Without a majority,the party would also need help from others to re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second term. The national parliament elects the South African president after national elections.

The ANC said right up to Wednesday’s election that it was confident of retaining its majority and it had given no indication of how it might form a coalition government.

“I think we are seeing a massive change in South African politics,” Susan Booysen,a political analyst and professor emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg,said on national broadcaster SABC TV on Friday.

The party’s worst previous performance in a national election was the 57.5 per cent it won in the last one in 2019. A projection from a government agency and SABC,based on early vote returns,estimated that the ANC would end up with about 42 per cent this time,a drop of more than 15 per cent,which would be a stunning result in the context of South Africa.

While opposition parties hailed the result as a momentous breakthrough for a country struggling with deep poverty and inequality,the ANC remained the biggest party by some way.

John Steenhuisen’s Democratic Alliance (DA) party – the main opposition party – was on around 21 per cent of the vote. The new MK Party of former president Jacob Zuma,who has turned against the ANC he once led,was third with just over 14 per cent of the vote in the first election it has contested. The Economic Freedom Fighters was in fourth with just over 9 per cent.

More than 50 parties contested the election,many of them with tiny shares of the vote,but the DA and MK appeared to be the most obvious for the ANC to approach for coalition talks. Which coalition the ANC pursues is the urgent focus now,given parliament needs to sit and elect a president within 14 days of the final election results being declared.

Steenhuisen has said his centrist party was open to discussions. The MK Party said one of their conditions for any agreement was that Ramaphosa is removed as ANC leader and president. That underlined the fierce political battle between Zuma,who resigned as South African president under a cloud of corruption allegations in 2018,and Ramaphosa,who replaced him.

“We are willing to negotiate with the ANC,but not the ANC of Cyril Ramaphosa,” MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela said.

MK and the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters have called for parts of the economy to be nationalised. The DA is viewed as a business-friendly party and analysts say an ANC-DA coalition would be more welcomed by foreign investors,although there are questions over whether it is politically viable considering the DA has been the most critical opposition party for years.

An ANC-DA coalition “would be a marriage of two drunk people in Las Vegas. It will never work,” Gayton McKenzie,the leader of the smaller Patriotic Alliance party,told South African media.

Despite the uncertainty,South African opposition parties were hailing the new political picture as a much-needed change for the country of 62 million,which is Africa’s most developed but also one of the most unequal in the world.

South Africa has widespread poverty and extremely high levels of unemployment and the ANC has struggled to raise the standard of living for millions. The official unemployment rate is 32 per cent,one of the highest in the world,and poverty disproportionately affects black people,who make up 80 per cent of the population and have been core ANC supporters for years.

The ANC has also been blamed — and now punished by voters — for a failure in basic government services that impacts millions and leaves many without water,electricity or proper housing.

Nearly 28 million South Africans were registered to vote and turnout was expected to be around 60 per cent,according to figures from the independent electoral commission.

AP,Bloomberg

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