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South Africa’s president has chosen May 29 as the date for national elections, setting the stage for what could be the closest-fought vote since the country became a democracy three decades ago.
President Cyril Ramaphosa described the poll, in which the governing African National Congress could lose its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid, as a “celebration of our democratic journey and a determination of the future that we all desire”.
“I call on all South Africans to exercise their democratic right to vote and for those who will be campaigning to do so peacefully,” he said on Tuesday as he announced the date.
Some 27mn registered voters will cast their ballots against a backdrop of soaring unemployment, rolling power blackouts and poor service delivery.
Support for the ANC, the party once led by Nelson Mandela, has eroded in recent years. Voter apathy has also risen, particularly among younger voters born after the end of apartheid who have fewer historical ties to the liberation party.
Ramaphosa sought to appeal to this bloc in his State of the Nation speech this month, which he used as a rallying cry for the opportunities he said the ANC had created for the “born-free” generation.
South Africa’s jobless rate stood at more than 32 per cent in the last three months of 2023, or 41 per cent when including those who have given up looking for work, according to a release from the country’s statistics agency on Tuesday.
Polls have shown the ANC’s support dropping to as low as 42 per cent. A recent survey conducted for an opposition party put the biggest rival party, the Democratic Alliance, on 19 per cent and the radical Economic Freedom Fighters on 15 per cent.
“This election is a turning point for South Africa, and it comes at a time when our nation needs it the most in three decades,” John Steenhuisen, Democratic Alliance leader, said in a statement. “The DA has meticulously prepared for this historic election, with support levels currently at their highest ever.”
The EFF, whose charismatic leader Julius Malema broke away from the ANC in 2012, has had particular appeal among younger voters.
“The EFF wishes to remind our people that under the rule of the ANC, all we have known is poverty, landlessness, unemployment, economic despair and, over the past decade and a half, darkness in the form of load shedding,” the party tweeted on X.
The confirmation of the election date comes ahead of a pre-election budget on Wednesday.
