The real work starts now, President Cyril Ramaphosa said following the national elections which saw the ANC retain power with a smaller majority.
While the ANC’s 57.5% share means Ramaphosa will be the first president to govern SA with less than a 60% majority, it was an improvement on the 53% it received in local government elections in 2016, meaning he has managed to arrest a decline in support that was attributed to rampant corruption during the presidency of Jacob Zuma.
The official opposition, the DA, bled support and saw its share of the vote drop to 20.76%, from 22.23% in 2014, as the party failed to capitalise on a steady stream of corruption allegations made against senior ANC members in the Zondo commission of inquiry.
The EFF was the only one of the country’s three biggest parties to increase its support, nationally from 6.35% in 2014 to 10.79%, though it fell short of some polls forecasts of a doubling in its support.
An energised Ramaphosa addressed thousands of ANC supporters outside the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg on Sunday.
"This was the most difficult campaign," he said. "They thought the ANC was going to lose power. We have shown them that the ANC is the organisation of our people."
Ramaphosa said the ANC had now been given a clear mandate and would do what it had promised in the campaign.
"They had thought we were going to lose, we will get under 50% and they were betting on that. They were dreaming about it, they were wishing for it… We are back and we are back with a great deal of vooma," he said.
The election of Ramaphosa as ANC president in 2017, the resignation of Zuma in February 2018, and the efforts to start cleaning up the rot in the country’s state-owned entities and institutions such as the SA Revenue Service and the National Prosecuting Authority seemed to have arrested the decline in support for the ANC.
It was projected ahead of the poll that the ANC would lose some ground in the national election.
However, a 57% result for the party was seen as a strong enough mandate for Ramaphosa to implement reforms and clean out the rot in the executive and the party.
This would be a step towards policy stability and economic growth, which the markets and rating agencies have been calling for.
Ramaphosa’s first big task as president, following his inauguration on May 25, will be to appoint a cabinet that is credible and not tainted by scandal. This will be the first time Ramaphosa will be appointing his own executive. When he became president in February 2018 he inherited the cabinet appointed by Zuma.
Ramaphosa said on Sunday that he was going to appoint people who were capable and forward looking.
"We are going to do things differently and effectively. We are going to make sure we grow the economy and we are going to make sure we invite investors to come and invest."
Before Ramaphosa appoints his executive, the ANC will
have to make crucial decisions about its National Assembly candidates list, which was criticised before the election for including individuals tainted by corruption allegations.
The lists were referred to the ANC’s integrity commission shortly before the voters went to the polls.
This is where the real fight is expected as those aligned to Ramaphosa and the clean-up will have to go head-to-head with those who are implicated in corruption and were involved in the state-capture project.
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