Voters during South Africa’s general elections on May 29, 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Gallo pictures | Gallo pictures | Getty Images
The ruling African National Congress party in South Africa lost its 30-year parliamentary majority, in the largest political transformation the country has witnessed since the end of the apartheid regime.
Popular support for the ANC during the May 29 elections was 40%, while the Democratic Alliance received 21.8%, and the Marxists Economic Freedom Fighters received 9.5%. According to the country’s electoral commission After 99.9% of the votes were counted, the “Umkhonto Visizwe” party, which was founded six months ago and is led by former President Jacob Zuma, and which was founded in December, received 14.6% of the votes.
The result represents a significant drop for the ANC from the 57.5% it snatched during the previous election in 2019 – at the time, it was the party’s weakest achievement since South Africa’s first democratic vote in 1994. The ANC has long been seen as a symbol of liberation . He has backed down in the battle with the practicalities of governance in recent years, amid rising systemic issues such as falling living standards, chronic power outages, Violent crime rates have been high for decades Unemployment reaches approximately 33%. In 2022, The World Bank has described South Africa as “the most unequal country in the world.”
“The issues that are at the top of voters’ minds are unemployment, burden distribution, corruption and crime, all of which have negatively impacted the country’s growth performance for many years,” say analysts at Deloitte. He said at the beginning of the month.
Unlike party hero Nelson Mandela, who freely formed a power-sharing coalition to bridge a gap of mistrust with rival parties in the nascent years of South Africa’s democracy, current ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa, 71, will have to negotiate a coalition to retain dominance – for starters. An extension of the talks and uncertainty about the country’s political direction.
Investors will be watching how this changes the trajectory of South Africa’s economic growth. By 0.9% this year By the International Monetary Fund.
Inflation remains constant at 5.2% in the latest reading for May, higher than the South African central bank’s target of 4.5%, with Governor Lesetia Kganyago saying printing will stabilize in the second quarter of next year. On Thursday, the bank kept the key interest rate at 8.25%.
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