Angry voters humiliate ANC
The party of the struggle against apartheid has been punished for two decades of stagnation and corruption.
South Africa’s ruling ANC party has lost control of the symbolic Nelson Mandela Bay area and has been abandoned by millions of voters across the country in local elections that could rewrite the country’s political landscape.
Twenty-two years after the end of apartheid, South Africans have used the local government elections to warn the ANC that its historic achievement in the struggle to overturn the white minority rule system no longer guarantees it the right to govern.
Frustrated by a stagnant economy, crippling unemployment and corruption scandals swirling around the president, Jacob Zuma, voters have turned away from the party of Nelson Mandela in huge numbers.
Instead, they cast ballots for the Democratic Alliance (DA), a party once considered a champion of the white middle classes, which now has its first black leader, Mmusi Maimane.
South Africans also voted in smaller but significant numbers for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a radical far-Left party led by former ANC firebrand Julius Malema, which is likely to serve as kingmaker in areas where the ANC or DA are forced to form coalitions.
Although voters are only choosing local councils, the elections have been widely seen by the public and political rivals as a referendum on more than two decades of ANC rule.
Eyewitness News quoted Malema telling party activists: ‘‘We are happy that the EFF is the first organisation to humble the ANC – the most arrogant organisation.’’
The first victory claimed by the DA was the Nelson Mandela Bay area, named after the revered former president and other heroes of the anti-apartheid movement.
The DA will have to rule in coalition, but the loss was still difficult for the ANC to digest.
Long after it was clear that support for his party had collapsed there, the ANC’s deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said it was too early to analyse the election
The ANC had a number of challenges and problems. We accept that the people have spoken. ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa
results. It would be like reading ‘‘somebody’s tombstone before they die’’, he said.
‘‘It was a hotly contested area, where we as the ANC had a number of challenges and problems. We accept that the people have spoken.’’
In Johannesburg and the urban sprawl around Pretoria, results are still being counted nearly two days after polling stations closed, with support for the ANC and the DA too close to call. But even if the ANC ultimately loses control of only one city, it has been chastened by the election result.
The party looks set to hold on to a slim overall majority nationwide, but this is the first time since Mandela took power that it has secured less than 60 per cent of the vote.
‘‘We need to have a serious introspection,’’ the ANC’s chief whip, Jackson Mthembu, told reporters at the main counting centre in Pretoria.
The challenge, particularly for the DA, as it takes power in new areas as part of a coalition, will be making good on election promises to rule for all, including the poorest black communities frustrated by inequality.
About 80 per cent of South Africa’s 54 million citizens are black, but most land and companies remain in the hands of white people, who make up less than 10 per cent of the population.
‘‘We’ve given the DA a chance to show what they can do. I hope they don’t let us down,’’ said one township voter, who asked to be named only as Tando because of the stigma still attached to his choice. ‘‘Where I come from, there is a lot of pressure to vote for the ANC.’’
The DA has built up a reputation for competent management in Cape Town, its only power base until now, but has been dogged by lingering accusations of racism. As recently as last year, a shadow cabinet member was demoted after sharing a Facebook post praising the apartheid-era president P W Botha.
The DA has worked hard to distance itself from that legacy. In a major speech at the start of the year, Maimane spelled out that the party did not want votes from anyone not committed to a diverse South Africa.
‘‘If you’re a racist and you are thinking of voting for the DA, please don’t. We are not the party for you,’’ he told an audience at the apartheid museum in a landmark speech on identity and race.