South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party has lost its three-decade electoral majority in devastating fashion. As the former liberation movement faces the task of building a coalition government, it remains to be seen how it will respond to the message sent to it by voters. The ANC’s vote share collapsed from 57.
5% in 2019 to 40.2% in last week’s elections, amid chronic unemployment, degraded public services and high rates of violent crime. The party also lost control of three of South Africa’s nine provinces, including KwaZulu-Natal, where the impact of the former president Jacob Zuma’s new party , uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) – which surprised with 14.
6% of the vote nationally – was felt most keenly. South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who senior ANC officials have said is going nowhere, sounded a conciliatory note in a speech at the election results centre on Sunday night after the final tally was announced. “Our people have spoken; whether we like it or not, they have spoken,” he said, adding that South Africans expected political parties to work together and find common ground.
A national coalition government has arguably been inevitable for years, with support for the ANC – which swept to power under Nelson Mandela at the end of apartheid in 1994 – declining in every national election since 2009. “They were seen as the party that had ushered in liberation, freedom,” said Kealeboga Maphunye, a professor of African politics at the .
