South Africa’s all-time favorite political party, African National Congress (ANC), has once again won the elections, securing 57.5 percent of the vote, followed by the main opposition party, the DA with 20.8 percent and the EFF at 10.8 percent, reported Reuters.
Despite the election win, the main cause of concern for ANC is its voting share. The 2019 election result is the worst electoral performance by the late Nelson Mandela’s party, which has governed South Africa since the country’s first free election marked the end of white minority rule in 1994.
This is the first time that ANC’s vote share has fallen below 60 percent in national elections since the country’s first free polls in 1994 in which it secured 62.7 percent of the vote. The party won with almost 70 percent of the vote in 2004 and 62 percent in 2014. The results did not come as surprise as the fallen vote share reflects people’s anger at corruption scandals and racial inequalities that remain entrenched a generation after the party took power.
Commenting on the victory, ANC leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa, called out the people to build a united South Africa. The 66-year-old took over last year when the ANC forced Zuma to resign after nine years in office.
Addressing his supporters in his victory speech, Ramaphosa said the result showed that South Africans still had faith in the ANC to deliver.
“Let us now work together, black and white, men and women, young and old, to build a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it as proclaimed by our forebears,” he told supporters in Pretoria.
He called for a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.
Ramaphosa is set to be sworn in as the President on 25 May. His first full term as the President of South Africa will begin later this month.
