South Africa’s opposition parties have a chance of wresting power from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) as the final results suggest the Democratic Alliance (DA) could win enough votes to form a governing coalition.
While the results are still to be determined and the exact number of seats awarded is awaiting a complex calculation, the ANC barely won 40% of the vote, while the DA won nearly 22%.
The ANC remains the largest party, but it may not be able to form a coalition with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the radical left party whose policies are closest to those of the current government.
The EFF received just 9.5% of the vote, putting it in fourth place behind former President Jacob Zuma’s Zulu-dominated Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party, which got just under 15% of the vote. The EFF has already begun the coalition negotiation process, making outrageous demands including seeking control of the Treasury.
Such comments from a party committed to Zimbabwe-style land reform will alarm the business community, which is already pushing for a coalition government between the ANC and DA, but with the two parties perpetually at odds with each other, such a coalition would be unstable and struggle to govern the country effectively.
ANC and EFF together With just under 50% of the vote (49.74% to be exact), the DA, along with all other smaller parties that won seats, may ask MK to join a coalition government.
The resulting opposition coalition would have a slim majority in parliament, but each party would likely wield significant power in government, and even a party that wins only one seat would have a chance at a ministerial post.
This was the tactic the DA used to win the Cape Town city council elections in 2006, the first time the ANC had been ousted from power in an election since the era of multiracial democracy began in 1994.
In that election, the ANC and another like-minded party, the Independent Democratic Party, combined to win just under 50% of the vote. The DA rallied other parties and shocked the ANC by winning then-mayor Helen Zille to city council.
Over the next few years, local voters flocked to the DA, pleased with its performance in the city and in the province, and the DA consolidated a majority that was confirmed by the provincial election results in the 2024 Western Cape elections.
It will take diplomatic skills to assemble an opposition coalition to oust the ANC from power at the national level, but this could be a rare opportunity to save South Africa from the ANC and a possible ANC-EFF-MK coalition.
One key figure could be former President Zuma. DA leader John Steinhausen, disliked by many South Africans for his corrupt tenure, may approach Zuma for a power-sharing deal and revenge against his former party.
Much will depend on how the party leaders meet behind closed doors over the next few weeks to decide how to run the government. There will be backstabbing and bribery, in words and in reality, but there may be a brighter future ahead.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday The show airs Sunday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. (4 to 7 p.m. ET) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of a new biography, Roda: “Comrade Kadariye, you are disrupting order.”He recently published an e-book titled ” Not Free or Fair: The 2020 US Presidential ElectionHe is the recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship in 2018. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
