JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s four main political parties launched the final weekend of election campaigning on Saturday. Possibly important election It could bring about the most significant change to the country in 30 years.
Supporters African National CongressSouth Africa’s ruling party, which has been in power since the end of white minority rule in 1994, gathered at a soccer stadium in Johannesburg to hear speeches from party leaders and South African representatives. President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The ANC is under unprecedented pressure to maintain its parliamentary majority in Africa’s most developed country, after its popularity steadily declined over the past two decades and Wednesday’s election marked a turning point for the party that was once considered the strongest in the country. Nelson Mandela It is the first time it has received less than 50% of the national vote, but it is still widely expected to win the largest share of the vote.
Some opinion polls put the ANC’s approval rating at less than 50 percent. A national coalition must be formedIt also marks a first for South Africa’s young democracy, which formally ended its first cross-racial vote 30 years ago. Apartheid System Of racism.
At the final big rally before the election, which drew thousands of supporters wearing the ANC’s black, green and gold uniforms, Ramaphosa acknowledged some of South Africa’s grievances, including high rates of poverty and unemployment that mainly affect the country’s black majority.
“We have a plan to put more South Africans to work,” President Ramaphosa said. “Throughout this campaign, South Africans have told us in their homes, in their workplaces and on the streets of our towns and villages that so many of them are struggling to find work and provide for their families.”
Main opposition Democratic Alliance The party held a rally in Cape Town, South Africa’s second largest city and its base, where leader John Steenhausen spoke and supporters in blue DA uniforms held up blue umbrellas.
“Democrats, are you ready for change?” Steenhausen asked. The crowd chanted back, “Yes!”
Although the ANC’s approval rating has declined in three consecutive national elections and is expected to continue to decline, no other party has emerged to overtake or challenge the ANC.
But losing its majority would mark the clearest rejection yet of a party famously at the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement. Leading South Africans to Freedom.
Some ANC supporters have expressed frustration that the country’s 62 million people are struggling with poverty. Unemployment is very highsome of the worst levels of inequality in the world, as well as problems with corruption, violent crime and the failure of basic government services in some areas.
“We want job opportunities and basically general change in everything,” said ANC supporter Ntombizonke Biela. “We have been waiting for the ANC since 1994. It’s been a long time. We have voted so many times but as a people we have seen very little progress and only a special few are benefiting.”
While the ANC acknowledges some failures, it points out that South Africa is a much better country than it was under apartheid, when a series of race-based laws favoured a white minority and oppressed the black majority. And although critics say it has lost its way in recent years, the ANC is widely credited with successfully expanding services to millions of poor South Africans in the post-apartheid decade.
“South Africa has a lot of problems but no one denies the changes that have happened since 1994 and that’s thanks to the ANC,” said Eric Phuolo, 42, a ruling party supporter.
Instead of a unified opposition, South African politics is slowly fracturing as some voters turn away from the ANC. Frustrated South Africans are flocking to a variety of opposition parties, some of which are new, with dozens of parties set to run in next week’s election.
South Africans don’t vote directly for a president in national elections, but for political parties, which get seats in parliament according to the vote, which then selects the president. So a loss of the ANC’s majority would undermine hopes that the 71-year-old president, Ramaphosa, can be smoothly re-elected for a second and final five-year term.
If the ANC’s approval rating falls below 50 percent, it will likely need to reach an agreement with other parties to find the votes in parliament to re-elect Ramaphosa, a one-time protégé of Mr Mandela.
The far-left Economic Freedom Fighters held their last major rally before the election in the northern city of Polokwane. fiery leader, Julius Malema; “South Africans have to decide whether they want to lose their jobs or not,” Malema said.
South Africa’s former president and former ANC leader Jacob Zuma’s new party, MK, was also campaigning in a town on the outskirts of the east coast city of Durban, but Zuma did not attend the event. Zuma at 82 He shocked South African politics late last year when he announced he was turning his back on the ANC and joining MK, a move that came as a fierce criticism of the ANC under Ramaphosa’s government.
Zuma has been disqualified from standing for parliamentary elections due to his criminal record, but MK is still allowed to use his likeness as party leader and continues to campaign. His daughter, Duduzile Zuma Sambudla, attended the rally, where MK supporters chanted “Run, run, Ramaphosa!”
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Gerald Imhle reported from Cape Town and Farai Mutsaka from Durban.
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