ANC on course to lose majority in South Africa’s seismic election • FRANCE 24 English

ANC on course to lose majority in South Africa’s seismic election • FRANCE 24 English

now in other world news vote counting today is underway in South Africa following the country’s most competitive election since the end of Apartheid early results suggest the African National Congress could lose its majority in Parliament after 30 years in power if confirmed that would Mark a watershed in South Africa thec has been in government since Nelson Mandela swept to power in 1994 at the end of white minority rule well let’s get the very latest for you live from Cape down an wentzel’s our correspondent she joins me on the program and I understand you’ve been watching the count pretty closely today and that the Electoral commission has had new numbers around half an hour ago well so what can you tell us the Electoral commission just briefed the media around 4:00 and um one of the things uh if I may extrapolate looking at the media contingent and how they responded and that media contingent at the briefing being largely South African I’m extrapolating their attitude out to the rest of South Africa and saying um it’s getting a little fidgety people are looking at the numbers and I think one of the reasons is as the IEC themselves said normally within 24 hours about 80% of the vote has been counted but this time we’ve had three ballot papers so this is added to uh some of the issues and some of the delays that is besides of course the delays at some of the voting stations and by 300 p.m. today there were a few voting stations where counting was still underway the I did not say how many uh they just said a few um when it comes to what is happening with thec so far with over 14% of of the votes counted and having gone through the sorting and the auditing process um the ANC is currently at around 43% and um followed by the da the eff and then um the uh MK party not surprisingly the party of uh former president Jacob Zumer at number four and the Democratic Alliance currently sorry um let me try that again the Patriotic Alliance at number five and they’re the ones who are posing a challenge to the Democratic Alliance which is currently lying at number two but when it comes to thec um it’s going to be a question of how many um votes are they missing to go into what type of Coalition so we’re looking at if they come in at under 50 and over 45 they could potentially join up with smaller parties and then they’d still actually have more power but if they go over that number 45% and and and more or rather 45% and less 44 43 then the power sharing becomes much more intricate and a as you say and look counting is ongoing it’s still pretty early but if these numbers continue to pan out as they are at the moment if things continue to look bad for thec what would that mean for the party that has held such a central place in South African democracy since the end of Apartheid well it’s 30 years of ANC rule um and I think one of the reasons that thec is in the predicament that it’s in at the moment is it doesn’t know how to listen to external voices um and when I say that I’m using the South African public as the external voice because the big issues where the public and the voter being the same person or entity uh feels underrepresented and not listened to and not heard because they’re not seeing the change that they are asking for and that they’ve been promised jobs where are the jobs the issues with electricity the issues with crime the issues with the lack of access to health and education these are things they’re not new they’re not new they are the same issues over and over again and there’s been no change and this is the huge problem is this disconnect between thec and the voting public whereas the ANC is always been led by basically the party and they need to be led by the people and wentzel for us in Cape down thanks very much

The African National Congress looked set on Thursday to lose the parliamentary majority it has held for 30 years, as partial election results suggested it would need a partner to stay in power – a first in South Africa’s post-apartheid history. If the final results confirm the loss of its majority, the ANC will be forced to make a deal with one or more other parties to govern – a situation that could lead to political volatility in the coming weeks or months.
#ANC #elections #SouthAfrica

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