The DA will on Saturday launch its manifesto in Tshwane before this year’s elections. The party has set its sights on lowering the ANC’s electoral majority, which would compel the governing party into coalitions, which is uncharted territory for SA’s democracy.
A recent poll by market research firm Ipsos shows ANC electoral support falling to 38.5% in the national and provincial elections, compared with 57.6% in 2019 and 45.59% in 2021.
The poll, conducted from October to December 2023, also shows that the EFF, the third-largest biggest party by seats in the National Assembly, is poised to shoot past the DA as official opposition or second-largest party.
Meanwhile, DA leader John Steenhuisen will on Monday lay criminal charges against deputy president Paul Mashatile “after a series of explosive exposés that have been published by numerous investigative journalists outlining, in granular detail, the extent to which [he] allegedly engaged in a web of corruption and state capture spanning almost two decades”.
The EFF’s list conference is expected to conclude on Monday. The two-day conference will finalise the list of candidates that will represent the party in parliament and provincial legislatures after the elections. The party’s list conference follows the launch of its election manifesto in eThekwini on Saturday where the party vowed to end load-shedding within six months should it be elected into government.
Municipal by-elections are scheduled to be conducted in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape on Wednesday. The newly formed umKhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which is backed by former president Jacob Zuma, will hope to maintain its upward trajectory when it fields its candidate in ward one in the uPhongolo municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal. This will be the second by-election in which an MK candidate participates after the by-election held in ward one Vryheid in AbaQulusi. The IFP retained the ward with 47% of the vote while the ANC garnered 31% and MK came in third place, winning 19%.
Highlight achievements
In parliament, MPs will on Tuesday and Wednesday debate the state of the nation address. This will be followed by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s reply to the debate on Thursday.
Delivering the last Sona of the ANC’s sixth administration in the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday, Ramaphosa sought to highlight the achievements of the past three decades, saying SA was a much better place than it was during apartheid.
He said state capture was defeated, corruption and load-shedding were being addressed and that roads and potholes were being repaired across SA.
But opposition political leaders were not impressed, saying Ramaphosa merely repeated what he has been saying in the years since he took office in 2018.
It is unclear whether the EFF MPs will participate in the Sona debate as members of the party boycotted the event last week after the Western Cape High Court on the morning of the Sona dismissed an EFF application to set aside the suspension from parliament of leader Julius Malema, deputy leader Floyd Shivambu and others.
Twelve committee meetings are scheduled for this week including the meeting of the portfolio committee on higher education on Tuesday and the portfolio committee on trade & industry on Wednesday that will be briefed on the Special Investigating Unit’s findings on maladministration at the National Lotteries Commission.
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