South Africa’s four major political parties begin campaigning on the last weekend before the elections

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s four main political parties kicked off the final weekend of campaigning on the Saturday before a possibly crucial election that could bring about the most important change in the country in three decades.

Supporters of African National Congresswho has been in government since the end of white minority rule in 1994, gathered at a football stadium in Johannesburg to hear a speech from the party leader and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The ANC is under unprecedented pressure to maintain its parliamentary majority in Africa’s most advanced country. Having seen its popularity steadily decline over the past two decades, Wednesday’s elections could be a landmark moment when the party, once led by Nelson Mandela falls below 50% of the national vote for the first time, although it is still widely expected to win the largest share.

Several polls indicate that ANC support is less than 50%, raising the possibility that have to form a national coalition. This would also be a first for South Africa’s young democracy, which was only established 30 years ago with the first all-race vote officially ending the apartheid system of racial segregation.

As thousands of supporters in the ANC’s black, green and gold colors attended his last big rally before the elections, Ramaphosa acknowledged some of South Africans’ grievances, which include high levels of poverty and unemployment that mainly affect the country’s black majority.

“We have a plan to get more South Africans into work,” Ramaphosa said. “Throughout this campaign, in the homes of our people, in the workplace, on the streets of our municipalities and villages, many of our people told us about their struggles to find work and support their families.”

The main opposition Democratic Alliance The party held a rally in Cape Town, South Africa’s second largest city and stronghold. Party leader John Steenhuisen gave a speech as supporters in the DA’s blue colors held blue umbrellas.

“Democrats, friends, are you ready for change?” Steenhuisen said. The crowd shouted back “Yes!”

Although support for the ANC has declined in three successive national elections and appears set to continue to decline, no party has emerged to overtake it – or even to challenge it.

But losing its majority would be the clearest rejection yet of the famous party that was at the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement and is credited with leading South Africans to freedom.

Some ANC supporters have also expressed their frustration as the country of 62 million people struggles with poverty, Desperately high unemploymentsome of the worst levels of inequality in the world and other problems such as corruption, violent crime and the failure of basic government services in some places.

“We want to see employment opportunities emerging and basically general changes across the board,” said ANC supporter Ntombizonke Biyela. “We have been waiting for the ANC since 1994, it has been a long time. We have voted and voted, but we see very little progress as the people, only a few seem to benefit.”

While admitting some failures, the ANC stressed that South Africa is a much better place than it was during apartheid, when a set of race-based laws oppressed the country’s black majority in favor of a small white minority. The ANC has also been widely credited with successfully expanding services to millions of poor South Africans in the decade after apartheid, even if critics say it has recently lost its way.

“There are a lot of problems in South Africa, but no one can deny the changes that have happened since 1994, and that was because of the ANC,” said Eric Phoolo, 42, another supporter of the ruling party.

The fact that some voters turned away from the ANC led to a slow fracturing of South African politics, rather than the rise of a single opposition party. Disaffected South Africans flocked to a number of different opposition parties, some of them new. Dozens of parties are registered to contest next week’s elections.

South Africans vote for parties and not directly for their president in national elections. The parties then obtain seats in Parliament according to their vote share and the legislators elect the president – which is why the ANC’s loss of its majority would affect 71-year-old Ramaphosa’s hopes of being re-elected smoothly for a second and last five-year term. term.

If the ANC falls below 50%, an agreement with other parties will likely be necessary to have the votes in Parliament to re-elect Ramaphosa, once a protégé of Mandela.

The far-left Economic Freedom Fighters held their last major pre-election meeting in the northern city of Polokwane, hometown of fiery leader Julius Malema. “The people of South Africa must decide whether they want unemployment,” said Malema.

Former South African president and former ANC leader Jacob Zuma’s new MK Party was also campaigning in a township on the outskirts of the east coast city of Durban, although Zuma did not attend the event. Zuma, 82 years old shook up South African politics when he announced late last year that he was turning his back on the ANC and joining MK, while also fiercely criticizing the ANC under Ramaphosa.

Zuma was disqualified from standing for Parliament in the elections due to a previous criminal conviction, but MK can still use his image as a leader and continues to campaign. His daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, attended the rally, where MK followers shouted: “Run, Ramaphosa, run”.

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Gerald Imray reported from Cape Town and Farai Mutsaka from Durban.

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