Campaigning for the May 29 polls reached a peak this weekend as various political parties held their final rallies before voters cast their ballots on Wednesday.
The ANC is expected to win the largest share of the vote but it may lose its majority, according to various credible polls, which predict the party to fall below 50%. Opposition parties are hedging their bets on the ANC losing its majority to compel the governing party to form a coalition at national level, a situation which the ANC wants to avoid.
The ANC is under pressure to retain its majority status amid growing frustrations over corruption allegations within its ranks, factionalism and the emergence of splinter parties such as the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, COPE and the EFF, which have weakened the governing party.
Supporters of the governing ANC, which is facing its toughest election yet, gathered at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday where President Cyril Ramaphosa urged voters to back the party for another five years.
“We are asking you to make a clear choice for unity and progress, and to reject the social and political forces that are working hard to undermine the gains of freedom made over the last three decades,” Ramaphosa pleaded.
“We will not allow parties who yearn for the apartheid past to undermine the constitution to protect the privileges of a few. We will not allow those who burn the flag of the democratic SA to reverse the achievements of our democracy,” he said.
On the same day, SA’s third-largest political party by seats in the National Assembly, the EFF, also held its final rally in Polokwane.
Firebrand party leader Julius Malema told supporters at the Peter Mokaba Stadium that should the party unseat the ANC from power, his deputy, Floyd Shivambu, would be appointed as the finance minister and the party’s secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini, would be appointed as KwaZulu-Natal’s premier.
“I commit that when I am president, I will not be involved in any form of wrongdoing and corruption,” he said.
“If the youth of SA come out on 29 May, we will collapse the government of criminals. The youth of SA is once again more interested in the coming elections. These elections belong to you, the youth of SA, and the youth of SA will determine the outcome of these elections.”
DA leader John Steenhuisen led the party’s final rally in Johannesburg on Sunday where he reiterated his party’s stance against the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act, which was signed by Ramaphosa on the eve of the elections.
“We don’t wait for elections to try to manipulate you with desperate stunts like the NHI.”
“This scheme will not solve the ANC corruption and mismanagement that has destroyed public healthcare. Instead, it will expropriate medical aid from the millions of South Africans who — despite the misrule of the ANC — have worked hard to make it into the middle class since 1994,” Steenhuisen said.
He said he was confident that the ANC would lose its majority in the elections.
IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa on Sunday urged party supporters in uMhlathuze in northern KwaZulu-Natal to vote out the ANC for load-shedding.
“How, after 17 years of rolling blackouts, can the lights suddenly stay on for two months? And every time we turn on the radio, another official is saying that this has nothing to do with elections,” Hlabisa said.
“If it were not so damaging to SA, we would surely laugh.
“It is unconscionable that the government would not only lie, but wilfully put our people in danger, distress and debt,” he said.
The national ballot paper will include 52 political parties vying for 200 seats in the National Assembly.
The regional or province-to-national ballots will consist of political parties and independent candidates. The number of contestants range from 30 to 44 on regional ballots and the configuration will be a single column.
In the provincial ballot voters will be able to choose either a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in provincial legislatures. The number of contestants range from 24 to 45.
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