South African political parties geared up for coalition talks on Friday as the governing African National Congress (ANC) looked set to fall well short of a majority in this week’s election for the first time in 30 years of democracy.
With results in from 57.3 per cent of polling stations, the party of the late Nelson Mandela had 41.9 per cent of the votes, a precipitous drop from the 57.5 per cent it secured in the last national election in 2019.
While the ANC looked likely to remain the country’s largest political force, voters appear to have punished the former liberation movement for years of decline.
The ANC had won every previous national election since the historic 1994 vote that ended white minority rule, but over the last decade South Africans have watched the economy stagnate, unemployment and poverty climb and infrastructure crumble, leading to regular power outages.
Projections by South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research indicate the ANC will end up with about 40.5 per cent of the vote by the time the full results are in.
So far the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) is in second place on 23.4 per cent.
“I think it’s a very good day for South Africa,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said.
“We said for the last 30 years the way to rescue South Africa was to break the ANC majority. We’ve done that.”
uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma, is at 11.3 per cent after eating into ANC support, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Zuma’s home province.
MK appears to have overtaken the radical Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF), led by Julius Malema, which is currently the third-largest party in parliament but is sitting on 9.5 per cent.
What next?
Political parties’ share of the vote will determine the number of seats they get in the National Assembly, which then elects the next president.
That could still be the ANC’s leader, incumbent president Cyril Ramaphosa. However, an embarrassing showing at the polls risks fuelling a leadership challenge from within his party.
A middle-aged white South African man in a suit smiles as he leans down to place a folded piece of paper in a ballot box.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen casts his ballot in Durban.
Though the DA says it wants to oust the ruling party, Mr Steenhuisen has not ruled out a partnership to block what he has called a “doomsday coalition” with the ANC bringing the EFF or MK into government.
Investors and the business community have voiced concern over the prospect of such a coalition, given the EFF is calling for the seizure of white-owned farms and the nationalisation of mines and banks, and Mr Zuma’s MK also talks about land confiscation.
