ANC provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane (@ANCECape/X (formerly Twitter)
- The ANC's Eastern Cape provincial executive committee met in East London on Monday to discuss the recent elections.
- The party says it has no need to accept any coalition talks that call for President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down.
- Everything you need to know about the 2024 general election on News24 Election Hub.
The Eastern Cape ANC's provincial executive committee (PEC) believes a government of national unity is the party's best option after it failed to secure a majority of votes.
The party in the province also said it was not prepared to support any coalition talks that demanded President Cyril Ramaphosa's resignation.
It comes as political leaders across the country are due to meet to discuss how to form a government after last week's elections produced no clear winner, with the ANC winning just 40% of the total vote.
The ANC won 62% of the total vote in the province, a decrease of about 6% from the 2019 general election.
On Monday, the PEC met in East London to discuss the results of the recent general election and the party's position in coalition talks.
In Development | Additional law enforcement police deployed to KZN amid fears of post-election violence
The committee also nominated and agreed upon three candidates to present to Luthuli House for the premiership.
The names are current premier and the party's provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane, Eastern Cape speaker of the legislature Helen Sauls-August and MP for humanitarian settlements Sipokazi Lusiti.
Mabuyane told PEC members he was looking at coalition talks with great interest.
“[It] It is vital that President Cyril Ramaphosa remains president of the Republic to ensure there is stability and continuity under the new government and as Eastern Cape citizens, we must once again be the voice of reason within our movement at this time.”
Mabuyane told PEC members:
Our poor performance in the national elections cannot be solely blamed on the President who led us from the front during the election campaign. The ANC won over six million votes and remains a powerful force after these elections.
He called on the ANC to reject any attempt to “negotiate with a gun to our heads”.
“The ANC should therefore go into government negotiations on a strong footing, based on being the party with the majority of votes.”
“At this difficult time, we must remember that even though the ANC won the 1994 elections with a landslide majority, it formed a government of national unity under the leadership of President Nelson Mandela.”
“Madiba established a government of national unity to ease ethnic tensions in the country.
“At present there is a lot of discontent in our country and no party has more than 50 per cent of the vote so a government of national unity may be necessary to ensure bipartisan cooperation to move our country forward,” Mabuyane said.
Referring to the Umkhonto weSizwe party, Mabuyane said the opposition at national level was already making “absurd demands” on the ANC to form a government.
“This includes demanding the resignation of the ANC chairperson. Such demands must be rejected with due contempt by all our comrades if we do not want to further weaken our organisation.”
“We must understand that our opponents, especially those who formed the MK party, are trying to subvert the ANC's renewal plans. They are already playing tricks by attacking democratic institutions, especially the IEC.”
“Secondly, if things do not go their way, they will use every opportunity to undermine peace and stability in the country.
READ ALSO | The ANC loses 71 seats in parliament and loses control of the parliament
“They have been stoking their supporters even before the elections, saying they will not accept results that contradict scientific research unless they get a two-thirds majority. Clearly we are facing anarchy that all South Africans must confront head on.”
Mabuyane told News24 that the ANC in the province trusted the party's national executive committee (NEC) to handle coalition talks.
“We will await instructions from the NEC. As a party we are engaged in a revolution to unite South Africa into a country that is free from racism and sexism. We are not challenging state power for fun,” Mabuyane said.
Mabuyane added that the ANC's failure to secure a majority of votes required introspection and a strategic response.
