The result announced on Sunday is the worst election result for the ANC – Africa’s oldest liberation movement, once led by Nelson Mandela – since it came to power 30 years ago and ended white minority rule.
Voters angry about unemployment, inequality and power cuts saw support for the ANC fall from 57.5% in the last general election in 2019 to 40.2.
The official results show that the ANC won 159 seats in the 400-seat National Assembly, up from 230 seats previously.
The result means that the ANC will now have to share power, likely with a major political rival, in order to retain it – an unprecedented prospect in post-apartheid South Africa’s history.
“South Africans expect the parties they voted for to find common ground, overcome their differences and work together for the good of all. That is what South Africans have said,” Ramaphosa said after the Electoral Commission announced the final results.
He called the election a “victory for our democracy”
The political parties now have two weeks to come to an agreement before the new parliament convenes to elect a president, who will probably still belong to the ANC as it remains the largest force.
“Now is the time for all of us to put South Africa first,” said Ramaphosa.
ANC representatives said on Sunday that the party was humiliated by the result and had “nothing to celebrate”. However, they stood by Ramaphosa, who was once Mandela’s chief negotiator in ending apartheid, and would not bow to pressure on him to resign.
The poor showing has fuelled speculation that Ramaphosa’s days could be numbered, either due to the demands of a potential coalition partner or as a result of an internal leadership challenge.
“This is a taboo area,” said Fikile Mbalula, the ANC’s secretary-general, at a press conference, the party’s first since the elections.
“Have we made mistakes? Yes, we have. In governance and everywhere else,” he said, adding that the ANC was now committed to forming a government “that is stable and that is able to govern effectively”
The ANC leadership will meet on Tuesday to plan the way forward.
South Africa’s largest trade union organisation and an important ally of the ANC – has also backed Ramaphosa.
“It is crucial that the ANC and President Ramaphosa lead a coalition,” said COSATU spokesman Matthew Parks
‘COALITION OF DOOM’
Before Wednesday’s vote, the ANC had won every national election by a landslide since 1994, but its support has waned over the past decade.
The main opposition party, the white-led, pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA), received 21.8% of the vote.
uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) – “Spear of the Nation” in the Zulu language – a new party led by former President Jacob Zuma and named after the former armed wing of the ANC, won 14.6% of the vote, inflicting the most damage on the ANC.
Although the result was better than expected, MK said it was considering challenging the results in court.
The far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, scored 9.5%.
The prospect of an ANC alliance with the EFF or MK has unsettled the South African economy and international investors, who would prefer a coalition with the DA.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said on the party’s YouTube channel that it had named a team to start talks with other parties to prevent such an alliance, which he labelled a “doomsday coalition”.
“It is not an option for the Democratic Alliance to bury its head in the sand while South Africa faces the biggest threat since the dawn of democracy,” he said.
The small Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), a conservative Zulu party with a power base in KwaZulu-Natal province that won almost 4% of the vote, was due to meet separately on Sunday to discuss its next steps.
Local media reported that the DA could be willing to enter into a co-operation pact with the ANC and support it on key decisions in exchange for top parliamentary positions. The IFP would also be part of such an agreement.
“I am pretty sure that (the ANC) would not only co-operate with the DA. It would most likely also partner with someone like the IFP because the DA is perceived as a very white party,” said Melanie Verwoerd, a political analyst.
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