African National Congress (ANC) polling agents set up a tent decorated with party paraphernalia outside a polling station in Umlazi on May 29, during South Africa's general election
Eko Hot Blog reports that South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party has lost its outright majority for the first time in a devastating blow for the party once led by Nelson Mandela.
The ANC has dominated South African politics since winning in the first post-apartheid elections 30 years ago.
The ANC was braced for a disappointing outcome, predicted by polls before Wednesday’s elections, but the final results which emerged on Saturday are even more devastating.
With 99% of the vote counted, the ANC won 40% of the vote, falling from 57.5% in 2019.
Tessa Dooms, a director at Rivonia Circle, a think tank in South Africa, said it was a historic result that diminished the ANC’s three decades hold on power.
“The election in South Africa is an important watershed moment that fundamentally changes politics,” she said.
According to the constitution, the party with the largest vote has two weeks from the result confirmation to form a new government.
The ANC will now have to form a coalition government with one or more opposition parties for the first time, to remain in power.
Driving the party’s waning support is an all too bleak reality for millions of people.
South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world, with 32% unemployed, along with soaring levels of crime.
Immense frustrations with water and electricity shortages as well as corruption have led to growing criticism of the ANC government.
Election staff members work at the National Results Operation Centre of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), which serves as an operational hub where results of the national election are displayed, in Midrand, South Africa, May 30, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Alet Pretorius)
The party’s vote share has fallen by a few percent in every election since 2004 — exacerbated by a generation divide, with younger voters born after apartheid, the so-called “born frees”, less likely to vote for the ANC.
“On the one hand, we overcame apartheid as a structural force,” Dooms said, “On the other hand, we have not actually changed many of the dynamics. We inherited inequality of one form, and we have doubled down on inequality in South Africa and another form going forward and it has hurt us.”
But in this election, the gradual decline in ANC support over the last 20 years grew more dramatic, Dooms said.
“The ANC has in some ways imploded in the form of its former president, Jacob Zuma. The rise of the MK is certainly the biggest story of this election,” she added.
Zuma was forced to resign from the presidency in 2018, and was convicted in 2021 of failing to present himself at a corruption trial against him. He is also due to be tried again next year for corruption in an alleged arms deal in 1999.
The populist leader has accused his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, of being behind his legal troubles.
Ramaphosa’s future is now an open question. He is the first ANC president to lose the party’s majority and turnout has fallen to 58.6%.
The ANC’s head of elections, Nomvula Mokonyane, told NPR Ramaphosa would not step down.
“Nobody’s going to resign,” she said.
NPR
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