South Africa election 2024: ANC loses majority, in alliance talks with Marxists, free-marketeers
- After 30 years of dominance, the ANC lost its majority in last week’s election. It remains the largest party but can no longer govern alone
- The electoral shake-up has pushed Africa’s most-industrialised nation into uncharted territory
The African National Congress (ANC) was holding high-stakes internal talks on Tuesday about which parties it should approach to form South Africa’s next government, with diametrically opposed Marxists and free-marketeers on the menu of options.
The ANC is open to talking to any party but will not entertain demands from some that President Cyril Ramaphosa step down as a precondition, Fikile Mbalula, the party’s secretary general, said at a press conference on Sunday.
“We are talking to everybody,” Mbalula said. “A coalition is a consequence, when you don’t have a majority, you do do that.”
The electoral shake-up has pushed Africa’s most-industrialised nation into uncharted territory.
After 30 years of dominance since Nelson Mandela led it to power in the milestone 1994 elections that marked the end of apartheid, the ANC lost its majority in last week’s election. It remains the largest party, but can no longer govern alone.
Voters punished the former liberation movement for high levels of poverty, joblessness and inequality, rampant crime, rolling power cuts and corruption – problems that have held South Africa back and will challenge the next government.
