Ruling ANC loses parliamentary majority | Wilnesh News

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has lost its 30-year parliamentary majority in the country’s most sweeping political shift since the end of apartheid.

In the May 29 vote, popular support for the ANC was 40%, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) at 21.8% and the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at 9.5%. According to the country’s electoral commission 99.9% of the votes have been counted. The “umkhonto weSizwe” party founded by the country’s former president Jacob Zuma in December won 14.6% of the vote and was only six months old.

The result marked a sharp drop from the 57.5% support the ANC received at the last election in 2019, the party’s weakest result since South Africa’s first democratic vote in 1994. Long regarded as a symbol of liberation, it has been struggling in recent years with falling living standards, prolonged power outages, Violent crime rates are at decades-high The unemployment rate is close to 33%. 2022, The World Bank ranks South Africa as “the most unequal country in the world”.

“Voters’ top concerns are unemployment, load shedding, corruption and crime, which have impacted on the country’s growth performance over the years,” Deloitte analysts said. Said at the beginning of the month.

Unlike Nelson Mandela, the party’s hero who freely formed a power-sharing coalition to bridge mistrust with rival parties in South Africa’s nascent democracy, the 71-year-old The ANC’s current leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, will have to negotiate a coalition to maintain dominance.

Investors will be watching how this changes the direction of South Africa’s economic growth, The fixed interest rate this year is 0.9% by the International Monetary Fund.

Inflation persists The latest May reading was 5.2%, higher than the South African Reserve Bank’s 4.5% target, and Governor Lesetja Kganyago said the growth rate will stabilize in the second quarter of next year. The bank kept its key interest rate at 8.25% on Thursday.