All eyes on ANC as it discusses who to enlist to govern South Africa
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa was on tenterhooks on Monday for the African National Congress to signal whom it will choose as a partner to govern the nation after it lost its majority in last week’s election for the first time in 30 years of democracy.
The ANC had comfortably won every previous election since the end of apartheid in 1994 but this time voters weary of joblessness, inequality and rolling power blackouts gave it just 40.2% of the vote, down from 57.5% five years ago.
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Its vote share was still the largest of any party but was not enough for the ANC to govern alone, thrusting South Africa into unknown political territory.
“This moment in our country calls for responsible leadership and constructive engagement,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa in a weekly newsletter published on Monday.
The ANC’s potential partners are diametrically opposed, ranging from the free-marketeer Democratic Alliance (DA) to uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), parties that advocate nationalising mines and banks and redistributing land.
“We would work with anyone who wants to work with us but not with a cap in the hand,” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said late on Sunday after the official results were announced.
With the future direction of government policy at stake, a working committee of 27 ANC officials was scheduled to meet today to prepare a presentation on the party’s options to be delivered to the National Executive Committee on Wednesday.
The meetings were earlier scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
“It’s a rescheduling,” ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri told Reuters, refuting a local media report that the meetings were postponed due to internal conflict and adding “how can you have disagreements when they haven’t even met yet?”.
The DA and the smaller, socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) have both announced they had set up negotiating teams to engage with other parties. Both are part of an alliance of parties formed before the election.
“The people of South Africa spoke loud and clear that political parties must find each other and constitute a government on their behalf as they did not give a full mandate to one political party,” said IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa.
