ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa attends the African National Congress party manifesto launch in Durban, South Africa on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Photo: Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg via Getty Images
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Saturday while campaigning in KwaZulu-Natal that the ANC would surprise its critics and win a clear majority in the May 29 elections.
“The ANC has an overwhelming presence in KZN and all the other parties that have come up yesterday and elsewhere are trying to nibble at the edges, but all they do is nibble at the edges,” supporters said. told. .
Mr Ramaphosa has spent the past two days in the province, home to former president Jacob Zuma, whose newly formed uMKhonto we Sizwe (MK) party is threatening to cut into the ANC's voter base, and on Saturday he will visit Inanda and Marian Hill. visited.
“We will win because the ANC has great hegemony here and the people of KZN and indeed the people of South Africa love the ANC. “We're going to surprise a lot of people who think they won't get it. It's a clear majority,” Ramaphosa said.
“We will have a clear majority so we will see what the ANC is all about, even here in KZN with the recent formation of a party called the MK Party. There is no doubt about that. .”
Mr Ramaphosa faces the toughest election of his career, with the ANC expected to lose its majority for the first time in 30 years. The party won 57.5% of the vote in the last general election in 2019.
A Social Research Foundation survey published two weeks ago showed the worst prognosis to date, with the party's vote share dropping to 37% and the MK party's vote share around 13%. is suggested. Previous opinion polls suggested that although the ruling party was in a difficult situation, it would still receive well over 40% of the vote.
Last week, the South African Electoral Commission (IEC) asked the Constitutional Court for an extension of time to appeal the Electoral Tribunal's decision that allowed Zuma to stand in the parliamentary elections. It supported the MK Party's appeal against the IEC's decision to uphold two challenges to Mr Zuma's parliamentary candidacy in the May 29 vote.
This is based on Article 47(1)(e) of the Constitution, which prohibits anyone sentenced to imprisonment for 12 months or more without the option of a fine from becoming a member of Parliament for the next five years. I was disappointed. Year.
Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2021 for contempt of court.
