DA leader John Steenhuisen was appointed Minister of agriculture.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa named a new Cabinet late Sunday night (June 30) after his African National Congress (ANC), the former main Opposition party and nine other parties agreed on the makeup of a coalition government following weeks of haggling.

Mr. Ramaphosa’s party retained the largest share of Ministerial positions as he appointed ANC officials to 20 of the 32 Cabinet Minister roles in the new coalition. But there were six Ministers from the Democratic Alliance (DA), once the main Opposition and the fiercest critic of the ANC, and Mr. Ramaphosa shared the remaining Ministerial posts among some of the smaller parties.

Also read: ​A new era: on the South Africa general election

Mr. Ramaphosa’s announcement of his new, multi-party Cabinet came a month after the ANC lost its 30-year political dominance of Africa’s most industrialised country in a national election, forcing it to seek coalition partners. The ANC’s share of the vote slumped to 40% in the May 29 vote and it lost its Parliamentary majority for the first time since it came to power at the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. The DA won the second largest share of the vote with 21%.

Others have also joined what the ANC called a government of national unity that is open to any of the 18 parties represented in Parliament. Some have refused to take part.

The power-sharing coalition is unprecedented for South Africa. The country briefly had a coalition government at the end of apartheid, but that was under different circumstances. The ANC held a clear majority then after the first all-race election, but new President Nelson Mandela invited others into his government in an act of reconciliation.

This time, the ANC needed the help of lawmakers from the DA and other parties to reelect Mr. Ramaphosa for a second term.

South Africans deserted the ANC in the landmark national election amid frustration over poverty and some of the highest rates of inequality and unemployment in the world, and Mr. Ramaphosa said on June 30 that those issues would be priorities for the coalition government.

While there are 11 parties in the coalition, the ANC and the DA — which were ruling party and main Opposition for years — are the two largest and the key players. Talks between them have been tense and drawn out and the DA was reportedly on the verge of walking away from a power-sharing agreement until a meeting between Mr. Ramaphosa and DA leader John Steenhuisen on Friday.

“We have shown that there are no problems that are too difficult or too intractable that they cannot be solved through dialogue,” Mr. Ramaphosa said, noting the negotiations had been complex.

In some of his most significant Cabinet decisions, Mr. Ramaphosa reappointed Paul Mashatile of the ANC to continue as his deputy president. Mr. Ramaphosa also appointed Parks Tau of the ANC as the Minister of trade and industry, an important portfolio that the DA was seeking and was at the heart of some of the tensions between the two parties.

DA leader Steenhuisen was appointed Minister of agriculture, while Mr. Ramaphosa also brought the leaders of four other political parties into his Cabinet as new Ministers.

“We have had to ensure that all the parties are able to participate meaningfully in the national executive,” Mr. Ramaphosa said.

Johannesburg:

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced his new government on Sunday with the opposition receiving 12 out of 32 portfolios following tough coalition negotiations after the ruling ANC lost its outright parliamentary majority.

The African National Congress, which has governed the country since the advent of democracy in 1994, retained 20 out of 32 cabinet positions, including key ministries such as foreign affairs, finance, defence, justice and police. 

The largest coalition partner, the Democratic Alliance (DA), will hold six portfolios including home affairs, environment and public works.

The DA’s leader John Steenhuisen, 48, was appointed Minister of Agriculture. 

The Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and other smaller parties scored six in total including land reform, correctional services, sports, tourism and public service. 

“The establishment of the Government of National Unity in its current form is unprecedented in the history of our democracy,” the 71-year-old Ramaphosa said, speaking from Pretoria in a televised speech. 

He was re-elected for a second full term last week, to lead what his humbled ANC calls a government of national unity (GNU) after losing its outright majority in the May 29 general election. 

“The incoming government will prioritise rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and a creation of a more just society by tackling poverty and inequality as well as unemployment,” he said.

Adding that he had to “ensure all the parties are able to participate meaningfully in the national executive as well as various parliamentary positions”.

The only other time South Africa has opted for a national unity government was at the end of apartheid, with Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk, the former leader of the government, overseeing the transition to democracy as executive deputy presidents. 

Tough negotiations

The ANC’s fall from grace came against a backdrop of high violent crime rates, a lacklustre economy and a crippling energy crisis. 

Ramaphosa’s highly anticipated announcement comes after weeks of tough negotiations between the ANC and the DA, which won 87 parliamentary seats (22 percent of the popular vote) compared to the ANC’s 159 (40 percent). 

The turbulent build-up to the country’s new government was met with criticism from the country’s leftist parties, including the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, a new grouping formed a few months ahead of the poll by the country’s former president Jacob Zuma, 82. 

The MK party came out of nowhere to win more than 14 percent of votes nationwide in the tense poll and now well be the country’s official opposition after refusing to join the ANC’s broad coalition.

Along with the leftist firebrand party the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), it shunned the ANC’s broad coalition with the DA as a “white-led unholy alliance”. 

The ANC had previously accused the DA of making “outrageous demands” for key cabinet positions in documents leaked to the press following weeks of closed-doors negotiations. 

Ramaphosa has called for the opening of the new parliament on July 18 to address MPs and outline guidelines of how his new coalition government, involving 11 parties, will work.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

South African Président Cyril Ramaphosa, right, greets opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, John Steenhuisen, left, at the first sitting of Parliament since elections, in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, June 14, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

In a country where racial segregation was once brutally enforced, South Africa’s new coalition government has brought a Black president and a white opposition leader together in an image of unity. Yet the power-sharing agreement sealed a week ago between President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party and the Democratic Alliance, one of South Africa’s few white-led parties, has unwittingly renewed some racial rifts.

Also read: ​A new era: on the South Africa general election

Many Black South Africans have expressed discomfort with a white-led party being back in power, even in a coalition. The country is haunted by the apartheid system of white minority rule that ended 30 years ago but is still felt by millions among the Black majority who were ruthlessly oppressed by a white government and remained affected by unresolved issues of poverty and inequality.

South Africa is now faced with the likelihood of seeing more white people in senior government positions than ever since apartheid ended. White people make up around 7% of the country’s population of 62 million.

The ANC liberated South Africa from apartheid in 1994 under Nelson Mandela, the country’s first Black president. Its three-decade political dominance ended in the landmark May 29 election, forcing it to form a coalition. The DA, with its roots in liberal white parties that stood against apartheid, won the second largest share of votes.

Both have promoted their coming together in a multi-party coalition as a new unity desperately needed in a country with vast socioeconomic problems.

But history lingers. The DA suspended one of its white lawmakers on Thursday, days after being sworn into Parliament, over racist slurs he made in a social media video more than a decade ago. Renaldo Gouws — reportedly a student in his 20s at the time — used an especially offensive term for Black people that was infamous during apartheid and is now considered hate speech.

Mr. Gouws faces disciplinary action from his party, and the South African Human Rights Commission said it will take him to court. The DA, which previously fended off allegations of favouring whites, is again under scrutiny.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions, an important political ally of the ANC, asserted that Mr. Gouws’ outburst was symptomatic of a DA that is “soft on racists.” The DA “needs to reflect on and address this if it wants to be accepted as a partner in the government of national unity by ordinary South Africans,” it said.

DA leader John Steenhuisen denied in a television interview that his party is dedicated only to white interests, saying it wouldn’t have won the second largest share of votes in a Black majority country if it was. The DA has Black and white lawmakers and supporters, but its only Black leader left the party in 2019, questioning its commitment to Black South Africans.

Political analyst Angelo Fick said the DA does have a “sense of whiteness” in the eyes of many South Africans and has created that by being “utterly disinterested in speaking to the concerns about race from Black South Africans.”

Shortly before Mr. Gouws’ case, racially charged language came from another direction when the MK Party of former President Jacob Zuma — once an ANC leader — called Mr. Ramaphosa a “house negro” for entering into the agreement with the DA. Mr. Zuma’s party also referred to white DA chairperson Helen Zille as Mr. Ramaphosa’s “slave master.”

Socioeconomic frustration

The MK Party and the Economic Freedom Fighters — the third and fourth biggest parties in Parliament — have refused to join what the ANC calls a government of national unity open to all. They said the fundamental reason is the DA, which they say is committed only to the well-being of South Africa’s white minority.

“We do not agree to this marriage of convenience to consolidate the white monopoly power over the economy,” EFF leader Julius Malema said. Mr. Malema has sometimes provoked racial tensions demanding change, once saying, “We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now,” and that South Africa’s “white man has been too comfortable for too long.”

He now says his party is not against white people but against a perceived “white privilege” that leaves 64% of Black people in poverty compared with 1% of white people, according to a 2021 report by the South African Human Rights Commission.

He represents a new opposition to the ANC by many Black South Africans frustrated over the race-based inequality that’s evident after 30 years of freedom. White people generally live in posh neighbourhoods, while millions of Black people live in impoverished townships on the outskirts.

That frustration led many voters to give up on the ANC. The concerns about teaming up with the DA could weaken the party even further.

Addressing the ‘toxic’ divisions

In his inauguration speech Wednesday, Mr. Ramaphosa recognised the “toxic” divisions that remain decades after Mandela preached racial reconciliation. “Our society remains deeply unequal and highly polarized,” Ramaphosa said.

The ANC is trying to use the coalition as a kind of reboot of Mandela’s ideals. “To us, it doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white,” ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said of the agreement with the DA. Mandela had used the phrase to signal he was open to all races serving in South Africa’s government. “Fundamentally,” Mbalula said, “the question is how do we move the country forward.”

South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa (CL) and his wife Tshepo Motsepe (CR) arrive ahead of Ramaphosa’s inauguration as President at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on June 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: VIA REUTERS

Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in for a second term as South Africa’s president on Wednesday in a ceremony in the administrative capital, Pretoria, with help from a coalition of parties for the first time in its 30-year rule.

Mr. Ramaphosa is now set to appoint a Cabinet in a new coalition government after his African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority in an election last month. He was reelected president by lawmakers on Friday after the main opposition party and a smaller third party joined the ANC in an agreement to co-govern Africa’s most industrialized economy.

He will have to guide the first coalition government in which no party has a majority. At least three parties will make up what the ANC is calling a government of national unity, with more invited to join.

Mr. Ramaphosa was administered the oath of office in a public ceremony at the Union Buildings, the seat of government, by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

King Mswati III of Eswatini, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, Zimbabwe President Emerson Mnangagwa and former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga were among many dignitaries who attended the inauguration ceremony as Mr. Ramaphosa begins what promises to be a tough final term in office.

The ceremony included a 21-gun salute by the presidential guard and a flypast by the South Africa Air Force over the Union Buildings. South African musicians and cultural dancers entertained thousands of citizens who attended the swearing-in.

Addressing the nation, Mr. Ramaphosa said that the people had spoken and their will would be adhered to.

“The voters of South Africa did not give any single party the full mandate to govern our country alone. They have directed us to work together to address their plight and realize their aspirations,” he said.

The newly elected head of state said that the people of South Africa “have also been unequivocal in expressing their disappointment and disapproval of our performance in some of the areas in which we have failed them.”

Mr. Ramaphosa also recognized that South African society “remains deeply unequal and highly polarised” which could ” easily turn into instability.”

“The lines drawn by our history, between black and white, between man and woman, between suburbs and townships, between urban and rural, between the wealthy and the poor, remain etched in our landscape,” he said.

He also promised that the new government would create new work opportunities to face the crippling unemployment as well as work on providing people with basic services like housing, healthcare and clean water.

While Mr. Ramphosa’s words were meant to reassure an already economically strained population, the new administration could prove challenging to lead.

It is made up of parties that are ideologically opposed and don’t see eye to eye on how to address the country’s many challenges, including land redistribution policies and proposed solutions to the country’s crippling electricity crisis, as well as their contrary views on affirmative action.

Major players such as the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party have already joined the coalition, and others like the Patriotic Alliance, the GOOD Party and the Pan Africanist Congress are widely expected to follow suit.

However, the third largest party led by former president Jacob Zuma, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, and the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party have refused to be part of it.

It is unclear when the formation of the new cabinet of South Africa’s seventh administration would be announced.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was reelected by lawmakers for a second term on June 14, after his party struck a dramatic late coalition deal with a former political foe just hours before the vote.

Mr. Ramaphosa, the leader of the African National Congress, won convincingly in Parliament against a surprise candidate who was also nominated — Julius Malema of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters. Mr. Ramaphosa received 283 votes to Malema’s 44 in the 400-member house.

The 71-year-old Mr. Ramaphosa secured his second term with the help of lawmakers from the country’s second-biggest party, the Democratic Alliance, and some smaller parties. They backed him in the vote and got him over the finish line following the ANC’s loss of its long-held majority in a landmark election two weeks ago that reduced it to 159 seats in Parliament.

During a break in what turned out to be a marathon parliamentary session, the ANC signed the last-minute agreement with the DA, effectively ensuring Mr. Ramaphosa stayed on as the leader of Africa’s most industrialized economy. The parties will now co-govern South Africa in its first national coalition where no party has a majority in Parliament.

The deal, referred to as a government of national unity, brings the ANC together with the DA, a white-led party that had for years been the main opposition and the fiercest critic of the ANC. At least two other smaller parties also joined the agreement.

Mr. Ramaphose called the deal — which sent South Africa into uncharted waters — a “new birth, a new era for our country” and said it was time for parties “to overcome their differences and to work together.”

“This is what we shall do and this is what I am committed to achieve as the President,” he said.

The ANC — the famed party of Nelson Mandela — had ruled South Africa with a comfortable majority since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994.

But it lost its 30-year majority in the humbling national election on May 29, a turning point for the country. The vote was held against the backdrop of widespread discontent from South Africans over high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment.

Analysts warn there might be complications ahead, though, given the starkly different ideologies of the ANC, a former liberation movement, and the centrist, business-friendly DA, which won 21% of the vote in the national election, the second largest share behind the ANC’s 40%.

For one, the DA disagreed with the ANC government’s move to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza in a highly sensitive case at the United Nations’ top court.

The DA leader John Steenhuisen was the first to confirm the agreement.

“From today, the DA will co-govern the Republic of South Africa in a spirit of unity and collaboration,” he said as he stepped away from Friday’s proceedings for a speech carried live on television in which he said a deal was signed and that the DA lawmakers would vote for Mr. Ramaphosa for President.

The Parliament session started at 10 a.m. in the unusual setting of a conference center near Cape Town’s waterfront, after the city’s historic National Assembly building was gutted in a fire in 2022. The house first went through the hourslong swearing-in of hundreds of new lawmakers and electing a speaker and a deputy speaker.

The vote for president started late at night, with the results announced well after 10 p.m. Mr. Ramaphosa finished his acceptance speech as the clock ticked past midnight and into June 15.

Former President Jacob Zuma’s MK Party boycotted the session but that did not affect the voting as only a third of the house is needed for a quorum.

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said the party was open to talking with anyone else who wanted to join the unity government. There are 18 political parties represented in Parliament and he said the multi-party agreement would “prioritize the country across the political and ideological divide.”

Some parties, including Mr. Malema’s EFF, refused to join.

The two other parties that joined the coalition deal were the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Patriotic Alliance, which has drawn attention partly because its leader, Gayton McKenzie, served a prison sentence for bank robbery.

Mr. McKenzie said he had been given a second chance in life and that South Africa also had one now, a chance to solve its deep socioeconomic problems.

The ANC had faced a deadline to strike a coalition agreement as Parliament had to vote for the president within 14 days after election results were declared on June 2. The ANC had been trying to strike a coalition agreement for two weeks and the final negotiations went on overnight June 13 to June 14, party officials said.

South Africa has not faced that level of political uncertainty since the ANC swept to power in the 1994 first all-race election that ended nearly a half-century of racial segregation. Since then, every South African leader has come from the ANC, starting with Mandela.

The new unity government also harked back to the way Mandela, South Africa’s first Black president, invited political opponents to be part of a unity government in 1994 in an act of reconciliation when the ANC had a majority. Ramaphosa had played a key role in those negotiations as a young politician.

This time, the ANC’s hand was forced.

“The ANC has been very magnanimous in that they have accepted defeat and have said, ‘let’s talk’,” PA leader Mr. McKenzie said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa . File
| Photo Credit: REuters

The leader of South Africa’s second biggest party says it will back Cyril Ramaphosa for president, almost guaranteeing he will be re-elected for a second term in Parliament later on June 14.

Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen says his party has formally signed a coalition agreement with Mr. Ramaphosa’s African National Congress, and part of the agreement is Mr. Ramaphosa will be president.

Lawmakers are due to elect a president later on today and the ANC and DA together have a majority of lawmakers that would see Mr. Ramaphosa return for a second term. If Mr. Ramaphosa is the only candidate nominated, he would be elected automatically without the need for a vote.

MK Party supporters dance in the middle of the street in Mahlbnathini village in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, on May 30, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority in a historic election result 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 nearly 99% of votes counted, the once-dominant ANC had received just over 40% in the election on Wednesday, well short of the majority it had held since the famed all-race 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.

While opposition parties hailed it as a momentous breakthrough for a country struggling with deep poverty and inequality, the ANC remained the biggest party by some way but will now need to look for a coalition partner or partners to remain in the government and reelect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second and final term. Parliament elects the South African president after national elections.

The result ended the ANC’s dominance three-decade dominance of South Africa’s young democracy, but the way forward promises to be complicated for Africa’s most advanced economy, and there’s no coalition on the table yet.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, was on around 21%. The new MK Party of former President Jacob Zuma, who has turned against the ANC he once led, came third with just over 14% of the vote in the first election it has contested.

Also read | Why was Jacob Zuma disallowed from contesting elections in South Africa: Explained

Which parties the ANC might approach to co-govern with is the urgent focus now, given Parliament needs to sit and elect a president within 14 days of the final election results being officially declared. A flurry of negotiations were set to take place and they will likely be complicated.

The MK Party said one of their conditions for any agreement was that Ramaphosa is removed as ANC leader and president.

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

More than 50 parties contested the national election, but given how far off a majority the ANC appears to be, it is likely that it will have to approach one of the three main opposition parties.

Also read: African National Congress | A party in decline

MK and the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters have called for parts of the economy to be nationalized. The centrist Democratic Alliance is viewed as a business-friendly party and analysts say an ANC-DA coalition would be more welcomed by foreign investors.

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%, one of the highest in the world, and the poverty disproportionately affects Black people, who make up 80% of the population and have been the core of the ANC’s support for years.

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

“We have said for the last 30 years that the way to rescue South Africa is to break the ANC’s majority and we have done that,” Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen said.

Nearly 28 million South Africans were registered to vote and turnout is expected to be around 60%, according to figures from the independent electoral commission that runs the election.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa casts his vote during the South African elections in Soweto, South Africa, on May 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

South Africa was heading closer to the reality of a national coalition government for the first time on Friday as partial election results put the ruling African National Congress well short of a majority.

With more than half of votes counted across the country’s nine provinces, the ANC had received just under 42% of the national vote. That represented a huge drop from the 57.5% it received in the last national election in 2019, although the final results from Wednesday’s election have not yet been declared.

The commission that runs the election said those would be announced by Sunday, possibly sooner.

The count from more than 13,000 of the 23,000 polling stations raised the strong possibility that the ANC would need a coalition partner to form a government and re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second and final term.

The leader of South Africa’s main Opposition party said he was open to working with the ANC, although he would have to first speak with a group of other parties that he has a preelection agreement with.

“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 Democratic Alliance party.

The ANC is widely expected to still be the biggest party and to have the most seats in parliament.

A child plays with her teddy bear as people cast their votes at a polling station on the Cape Flats during South African elections in Cape Town, South Africa, May 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The African National Congress appeared on course to lose the parliamentary majority it has held for 30 years, partial results from South Africa’s national election showed, in what would be the most dramatic political shift since the end of apartheid.

With results from 10% of polling stations, the ANC’s share of the vote on May 29th’s election stood at 42.3%, with the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) at 26.3% and the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at 8.1%, data from the electoral commission showed.

If the final results were to resemble the early picture, the ANC would be forced to make a deal with one or more other parties to govern— a situation that could lead to unprecedented political volatility in the coming weeks or months.

Under South Africa’s constitution, the newly elected National Assembly will elect the next president.

With the ANC still on course to be the largest party, its leader Cyril Ramaphosa is likely to remain as the country’s president, although a poor showing could make him vulnerable to a leadership challenge from within party ranks.

The ANC has won national elections held every five years since the landmark 1994 election, which marked the end of apartheid and the ascent of Nelson Mandela as President.

But since those heady days the ANC’s support has declined because of disillusionment over issues such as high unemployment and crime, frequent power blackouts and corruption.

The early results showed the ANC and the DA neck-and-neck on about 34% each in the key province of Gauteng, which includes the country’s business capital Johannesburg and the sprawling townships of Soweto and Alexandra.

The Zuma factor

In KwaZulu-Natal, a populous eastern province where the major city of Durban is located, a new party led by former President Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), was performing strongly, with 41.7% of the vote versus 20.1% for the ANC.

Zuma was forced to quit as President in 2018 after a string of scandals and has since fallen out with the ANC leadership, leading him to throw his weight behind MK. The party, named after the ANC’s armed wing from the apartheid era, appeared to be costing both the ANC and the EFF votes, especially in KwaZulu-Natal.

By law, the electoral commission has seven days to declare full results, but in practice it is usually faster than that. In the last election, in 2019, voting took place on May 29 like this year and final results came on May 31

The new Parliament must convene within 14 days of final results being declared and its first act must be to elect the nation’s President.

This means that if the ANC is confirmed to have lost its majority there could be two weeks of intense and complex negotiations to agree on how to form a new government.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers a speech at the African National Congress Election Manifesto launch in Durban, South Africa, on February 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Polls suggest South Africa will face a historic turning point in a national election in May as the ruling African National Congress could lose its majority for the first time since coming to power in the country’s first all-race vote at the end of apartheid in 1994.

The ANC has governed South Africa for all of its 30 years of democracy since the end of white minority rule. However, the party of the late Nelson Mandela has seen a gradual decline in support and analysts say this election could be a watershed moment when it slips below 50% of the vote.

The ANC launched its election manifesto on February 24.

Here’s what to know about the famous political party and the May 29 vote, which will be closely watched for signs of the direction that one of Africa’s most important countries is heading.

Socio-economic problems

The ANC once commanded 70% of the vote and was almost untouchable in South African politics. It was admired for leading the anti-apartheid movement and freeing South Africa from the system of forced racial segregation.

However, that reputation is no longer enough for many as the country of 62 million people faces deep socio-economic problems. The overriding sentiment is that the ANC has failed to significantly improve the lives of millions of South Africa’s poor Black majority over its three-decade rule.

That has been reflected in recent elections. The ANC won 57% of the vote in the last general election in 2019, its worst performance nationally. The biggest wake-up call came in local elections in 2021 when it went below 50%. That meant more South Africans voted for other parties than the ANC in a momentous shift.

Poverty and unemployment. South Africa’s official unemployment rate of 32% is the worst in the world and rising. The country is rated by the World Bank as the country with the highest wealth inequality, and while it has cities boasting high-rise financial districts, modern airports and some of the world’s best sports stadiums, it also has millions living in shacks and below the poverty line.

The ANC’s reputation has also been tarnished by a stream of corruption allegations, especially under the leadership of former South African President Jacob Zuma from 2009-2018. Rampant graft over that period is estimated to have cost billions of dollars and South Africa held a 4-year inquiry in an attempt to uncover the extent of the corruption.

Most recently, an electricity crisis tied to corruption and mismanagement at the state-run national power supplier has led to nationwide daily rolling blackouts. It has been disastrous for businesses and the mood of South Africans.

The Opposition

The main opposition party is the Democratic Alliance (DA). It won 20% of the vote in the last election to the ANC’s 57% and is not expected to be able to challenge the ANC alone this year. The DA has a pre-election coalition agreement with other parties to combine their votes in an attempt to oust the ANC. All of them would have to increase their share considerably for that to happen.

The Economic Freedom Fighters, the third biggest party in Parliament, has risen in popularity under a fiery leader who was expelled from the ANC. It favours some radical far-left policies and is not part of the opposition coalition. If the EFF joined the coalition, that could push the ANC out of government, but the EFF and DA are far apart and as critical of each other as they are of the ANC.

The ANC was jolted last year when Mr. Zuma, its former leader, announced the formation of a new party. The uMkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) party could draw more votes away from the ANC.

South Africa is heading for a coalition government

Opinion polls predict that South Africa is heading for a coalition government for the first time.

Analysts expect that if the ANC gets less than 50%, it will go into coalition with other smaller parties to stay in government and re-elect Mr. Ramaphosa for a second term.

South Africa has 14 political parties currently represented in Parliament and more than 300 parties registered nationally. Voters choose political parties and not candidates in national elections. Parties then get seats in Parliament according to their share of the vote, and lawmakers elect the president.

While a coalition government seems likely, that has raised concerns. The country has coalitions at the local government level, but many have failed, leading to more problems in delivering services for frustrated citizens.