By Enyichukwu Enemanna
As South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC) stares at the possibility of losing the seat in the parliament for the first time since 30 years of its democracy, the party’s Deputy Secretary-General Nomvula Mokonyane said she would not resign.
The parliament in South Africa elects the President, a process that is largely influenced by the party with the majority in the National Assembly.
After the national and provincial elections on Wednesday, the support of ANC appears to be on the decline as voters now seek alternative to the late Nelson Mandela’s party, the first President elected on its platform after the apartheid era in 1994.
So far, results from 61.2% of polling stations have been computed and the ANC had 41.9% of votes, a sharp decline from the 57.5% it secured in the last national election in 2019 when Cyril Ramaphosa came to power.
The pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) is coming second with 23% of votes while uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma, was at 11.7% and eating into ANC support, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province.
MK had overtaken the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), currently the third biggest party in parliament, which was sitting on 9.5%.
The parties on Friday commenced talks for a coalition that will help them edge out ANC, producing the majority in National Assembly.
But with the reality staring the governing ANC, its Deputy Secretary-General vows to remain in power.
READ ALSO: Nigeria: 40 Directors Fail Exam To Become Permanent Secretaries
“The leadership of the ANC will meet, structures of the ANC will be consulted. For now we are not talking to anybody,” she said.
The ANC had won every previous national election since the historic 1994 vote that ended white minority rule.
Over the last decade however, South Africans have watched the economy stagnate, unemployment and poverty climb and infrastructure crumble, leading to regular power outages.
These put together have affected the support base of the ANC, in addition with the corruption allegation facing its leader Ramaphosa, who is fighting for a second tenure in office.
