JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, made its final appeal Sunday to South Africans to help it dethrone the ruling African National Congress as it ramps up its campaign ahead of elections this week closed.
The Democratic Alliance is the largest opposition party in South Africa and has brought together a number of smaller opposition parties to form a pact known as the Multiparty Charter for South Africa. This will see a group of political parties pool their votes to challenge the ruling ANC. the elections.
Sunday’s meeting coincided with that of the smaller opposition Inkatha Freedom Party, which has the populous KwaZulu Natal province as its stronghold and has committed to working with the main opposition.
Recent polls and analysts have suggested that the ANC could receive less than 50% of the national vote. The Democratic Alliance is under pressure after its support declined in the last national election and some of its former leaders left the party to form new political parties that will compete at the polls.
The leaders and supporters turned out in their thousands on Sunday at Benoni, east of Johannesburg, where blue flags and party memorabilia decorated a small stadium in the city.
“Make no mistake: if DA voters stay home, or if they split the votes among many small parties at the ballot box, the next chapter of our country could be even uglier than the past,” said party leader John Steenhuisen.
“If we sit back and allow a coalition between the ANC, the (Economic Freedom Fighters) and the (uMkhonto weSizwe), aided by the sell-off in the Patriotic Alliance, then our future will be much, much worse than yesterday. It will be the day of reckoning for South Africa,” he said to loud applause.
A coalition between the DA and other parties, including the Patriotic Alliance in Johannesburg council after the 2021 local government elections, collapsed, returning power to an ANC-led coalition, resulting in political animosity between the two parties .
Steenhuisen has repeatedly accused the ruling ANC and the left-wing opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters of plans to form a coalition after the elections.
Speaking ahead of the latest rally on Sunday in the KwaZulu-Natal town of Richards Bay, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Velenkosini Hlabisa said their main goal was to see the current government ousted.
“The IFP is campaigning to remove the ANC from power and become part of government at a policy level, and also to reduce the ANC to below 50% at a national level.
“We call on people to take action and vote for the IFP to remove the government that has failed them,” Hlabisa said.
He said most negotiations would take place after the results were known. Hlabisa highlighted that unemployment, poverty, crime and the country’s electricity crisis are some of the biggest problems facing South Africans.
“We all know the crisis we face, we all know the depth of the struggle in South Africa and the daily trauma that so many people are experiencing. What the country needs to hear is that there is a way out,” he said.
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Mutsaka reported from Richards Bay, South Africa.
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AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
Associated Press writer Farai Mutsaka reported from Richards Bay, South Africa.
