Yahoo News Harriet Barber
The African National Congress has lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid, with voters angry at joblessness, inequality and power shortages.
Nearly 99 per cent of votes had been counted by Saturday night and the once-dominant ANC – the party Nelson Mandela led to power at the end of apartheid – had received just over 40 per cent.
The nosedive from its 57.5 per cent share in 2019 comes after years of economic mismanagement and corruption that led to widespread poverty, extremely high levels of unemployment and a failure in government services.
Despite being Africa’s most advanced economy, South Africa’s unemployment rate is one of the highest in the world, at 32 per cent, while millions have to contend with regular water and power shortages.
‘This has opened our eyes’
Many voters saw this election as a chance to change direction, with the slogan “2024 is our 1994” circulating on social media and on campaign posters.
“I’m actually shocked,” said Maropene Ramokgopa, an ANC official. “It has opened our eyes to say, ‘Look, we are missing something, somewhere.’”
Opposition parties have hailed the end of the ANC’s 30-year majority as a momentous breakthrough.
“The way to rescue South Africa is to break the ANC’s majority and we have done that,” said John Steenhuisen, the leader of the centrist Democratic Alliance (DA).
The election has put one of the continent’s most stable countries on an uncharted course, and the ANC must now share power with a rival in order to keep it – an unprecedented prospect.
“We can talk to everybody and anybody,” Gwede Mantashe, the ANC chairman, and mines and energy minister, told reporters.
The ANC could seek an alliance on the Left with either the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), led by Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, or the populist Economic Freedom Fighters; or it could turn to the biggest opposition party, the DA, which garnered 21.7 per cent of the vote…
Mandela’s ANC loses majority for first time since end of apartheid (yahoo.com)
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