South Africa’s ANC Pledges to Rebuild After Election Setback
(Bloomberg) -- The African National Congress, which lost its three-decade stranglehold on South African politics in last year’s elections, vowed to regain the trust of voters and rebuild its support.
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“The outcome of the May elections was a sad moment for the ANC,” President Cyril Ramaphosa told about 16,000 supporters gathered at a stadium in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha suburb on Saturday for a rally held to mark the 113th anniversary of the party’s founding and set out its policy priorities for the year. “We are determined to regain public confidence and return as a majority party in the next election.”
Originally known as the South African Native National Convention, the movement was formed in 1912, uniting tribal chiefs, Black leaders, churches and civil rights groups in the fight for the rights of the country’s Black majority. It changed its name to ANC in 1923 and was banned by the apartheid regime in 1960.
Most of its leadership was arrested, including Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison, while others went into exile. Popular resistance to apartheid and economic sanctions finally forced the White government to the negotiating table, and the ANC was legalized in 1990. It took power under Mandela four years later, winning almost 63% of the vote.
The party made initial strides in broadening access to housing, water, electricity and welfare grants, and its support peaked at almost 70% in 2004. It has fallen in every national election since then, though, in a backlash against the graft that became endemic during Jacob Zuma’s tenure as president as well as persistent poverty and unemployment.
The ANC lost its parliamentary majority last year, and to retain power it entered an uneasy alliance with its main competitor, the Democratic Alliance, and eight smaller parties.
While investors have welcomed the new administration’s commitment to grow the economy, attract investment and create jobs, its pro-business stance has angered its traditional labor union and communist allies.
Ramaphosa said it was pivotal that the ANC retain its close relationship with the unions and the South African Communist Party, and that they continue to wield power through through the state.
“Let us not divide this revolutionary alliance,” he said. “The strategy of the enemy is to erode the ANC by forming breakaway parties.”
The president also said his party’s strategic objectives hadn’t changed, and its decision to enter into a governing alliance was necessary to further its aims of transforming the country.
“The false notion that the character of the ANC has changed by entering onto a tactical government of national unity is a distortion that should be dismissed,” he said. “The idea that a progressive party can’t engage its opponents in short-term tactical agreements without selling out is false.”
The main opposition to the ruling alliance has come from the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, which was founded by Zuma in late 2023 and went on to win 14.6% support in the May elections, putting it in third position. It drew most of its support at the expense of the ANC and the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, which finished fourth. A number of the EFF’s senior leaders have since quit and joined Zuma’s party.
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