South Africa's ANC poised to lose majority

South Africa's ruling African National Congress party looks set to lose its majority for the first time since it swept to power at the end of apartheid, in a watershed moment for the country, as support for the former liberation movement collapsed below 50% in partial results.

- Rachel Savage

With 31.1% of votes counted by early yesterday evening, South Africa was on the verge of a coalition government. The ANC had 42.3% of the vote, with the pro-business Democratic Alliance on 25% and the Marxist-inspired Economic Freedom Fighters on 9%.

Not far behind the EFF, on 8.8%, was the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party, launched in December by Jacob Zuma, who was forced to resign as president of South Africa amid corruption allegations.

Since then he has waged a bitter feud with the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and his new party has upended the elections, even though Zuma himself was barred from running due to a 2021 prison sentence for contempt of court.

If the final results of Wednesday's election are similar to early results, it would be a stunning blow for the party that has led South Africa since it won the country's first fully democratic elections under Nelson Mandela in 1994.

While the hollowing out of many state institutions during Zuma's presidency from 2009 to 2018 ate away at the ANC's support, it was still able to secure 57.5% of the vote in the 2019 national elections.

South Africans' mood has worsened since, amid rising unemployment, water shortages and power cuts that have lasted up to 10 hours a day, and it may be this that finally costs the ruling party its majority.

"The ANC has lost the election," said David Everatt, a professor at the University of Witwatersrand, who conducted polls for the party from 1993 to 2021.