ANC in worst election result since Apartheid ended in South Africa
Noriko Watanabe and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The African National Congress (ANC) won its lowest share of the vote since the ending of apartheid. However, given endless corruption scandals, mass unemployment, poverty, high crime, and other ills, the only surprise is why it took so long.
More worrying for the ANC, is that the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are continuing to steadily grow. This left-wing party is taking many former ANC voters away from the ruling party.
Julius Malema, the leader of the EFF, said, “We are eating this elephant bit by bit.”
Reuters reported, “Monday’s municipal elections had been widely viewed as a referendum on the ANC, tainted by corruption and facing a backlash over poor stewardship of an ailing economy beset by chronically high unemployment, and on its uninterrupted 27 years in charge of Africa’s most industrialized nation.”
The final standings after the municipal elections are ANC 46%, Democratic Alliance (DA) 22%, EFF 10%, Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) 6%, Freedom Front Plus 2%, and ActionSA 2%.
The ANC suffered defeats in key cities including Johannesburg and Pretoria. Similarly, majorities were lost in areas including KwaZulu-Natal.
In the acknowledgment of the changing political map, President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “If we are to make this a new and better era, we as leaders must put aside our differences.”
The BBC reports, “The governing ANC was already losing support in the 2016 election. It had five years to prove its worthiness but instead most South Africans continued to experience poor delivery of basic services like running water, rolling blackouts and political in-fighting.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59166081
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