“ANC Failed”: Mandela’s Party Loses Majority for First Time Since End of Apartheid in South Africa

this news is funded by viewers like you please support our work at democracynow.org this is democracynow democracynow.org the Warr and peace report we end Today's Show in South Africa where the African National Congress has lost its majority for the first time in 30 years thec once led by Nelson Mandela had held outright power since the end of a partake in last week's election thec won just 40% of the vote obtaining 159 seats and the 400 seat Parliament this ISC Secretary General VI maulo while thec has won the most votes in this election the results show a significant decline in the ANC support from previous elections while there are several factors that have contributed to the deine in support the results sent a clear message to thec we wish to assure the people of South Africa that we have heard them we have heard their concerns their frustrations and their dissatisfaction and this is South African president Siro Raposa the final announcement of the 2024 National and provincial election results today in many ways represents a victory for our democracy as South Africans it also represents a victory of our constitutional order but more importantly it represents a victory for all the people of South Africa we have held another successful election that has been Free Fair credible and peaceful for more we're joined by two guests in South Africa Joan BG Trevor Guan is with us Soto Bas activist chair of the united front and umbrella body of community and labor organizations and in Cape toown we're joined by Lewis Friedberg born and raised in South Africa veteran journalist who reported on the 1994 elections 30 years ago when Nelson Mandela was elected president he also covered the anti apartate movement and transition to democracy where he's reporting for the nation we welcome you both to democracy Now Trevor and guani let's begin with you um can you talk about why you think thec lost its majority certainly has well more a plurality of the votes but the significance of losing the majority for the first time in 30 years yeah thank you Michelle basically the ANC failed to fulfill the promises of National Liberation it fell too short of the expectations of the masses of the working class and the poor remember there were great sacrifices made during the struggle against aparate but now the victory of aparate has not healed at the expected results indeed I would say that there's a a crisis of everyday life for ordinary people especially the poor the working class a comfortable life is not ordinary in South Africa life is difficult it's even dangerous uh transport there's not adequate uh transport housing lot of homelessness shs Shanty towns uh the unemployment is above around about 50% skyrocketing food prices cost of living crime you know we've got a a problem of gender based violence women getting raped child molestation domestic violence so all all the poverty the unemployment the inequality is basically leading to a breakdown of the social Fabric and lastly Michelle there's been a general generalized um uh energy crisis where we have rolling power failures almost on a daily basis and this affects all all classes including big business so everyone is really fed up with the ANC everyone feels that the ANC has failed especially because its top leadership has been Meed in corruption what is called state state capture year where government contracts are given to comrades uh to friends and people are engaged in self enrichment the NC has failed it deserves what it got I want to bring Lewis freedberg into this conversation you covered Nelson Mandela being elected president 30 years ago head of thec can you talk about the trajectory of thec and elaborate on what TR Trevor Has just said well everything Trevor and guani said was correct I was watch Nelson Mandela vote from a few feet away in April 1994 thec was promising a better life for all that was their slogan a better life for all um we all had Great Hopes for thec and uh they failed on so many fronts and I think one of the things that's most uh upsetting to me when I've gone around the country uh talking to young people um half the country half of the population is under 30 and this is the key this is South Africa's future and talking to young people who are out of work struggling just to survive even ones who are in universities figuring how to pay their fees how to pay their rent they've lost faith in government and they actually don't believe that anything will get better and I think that's a huge challenge for thec and whatever Coalition is Cobble together the election last week was just really the the first phase because now the ANC has to form a coalition that's never done that before they've been able to rule without having to consult with anybody else and uh the big question now is who's going to be in that Coalition because one of the main reasons the ANC lost so much support was because of defections from thec itself the former corrupt president Jacob Zuma formed his own party part is just a shell on paper he has the majority in at least the most votes in the quaza Nal the second most popular state a province and how is that going to work is is he going to be brought back into government what about the economic freedom front that is also split off from thec the leader there Julius Malo was kicked out of thec 10 years ago two the two of those parties together would give thec more than 50% or are they going to go to the Democratic Alliance which is a more Centrist some people call it right of Center I call it more liberal free market party but it's the leadership is dominated by whites as really not reached into the black community in South Africa very much will thec form an alliance with the Democratic Alliance which has been the official opposition which many people are hoping for and then there's another big question is whether the current president sir Raposa will be able to retain his seat after this historic his position after this historic uh really setb back I mean it's a humiliating uh result for thec all of this is going to have to play out in the next two weeks and uh South Africa is really still at a a fork in the road is it going to go towards a more stable government or is it going to bring back into the party some of the corrupt uh elements that they Tred to get rid of Trevor and go let's begin with uh let's end with you as I watched sir Raposa speaking live yesterday he was actually joking around cracking jokes um though he went on to say this is a sign of a democracy and we will move forward who are the leaders you are looking to right now in forming that coalition government with thec well basically what uh Louis was saying you know our left here was decimated and certainly forming an alliance with the right leaning Democratic Alliance uh is not on so I think that it is time now for the Trade union movement for the social movements in South Africa to get their act together to form probably a workhouse party and uh to make sure that the next coming election which is in two years local government elections are important here at least we have something coupled together which can actually claim some of the for political space I'm telling you even the number of people who voted it went down people didn't feel like there was any party worthy of their vote of their trust thec undermined all trust in politics in politicians as we continue with part two of our interview about the historic election in South Africa where the African National Congress has lost its majority after 30 years thec which has been in power since the end of a parate won just 40% of the vote marking the first time the party that was once led by Nelson Mandela will not hold outright power in 30 years we're going to turn to South African president head of thec sirel Raposa who has now attempt to build a coalition with other parties this was his speech a part of it after the official results were announced on Sunday the final announcement of the 2024 National and provincial election results today in many ways represents a victory for our democracy as South Africans it also represents a victory of our constitutional order but more importantly it represents a victory for all the people of South Africa we have held another successful election that has been Free Fair credible and peaceful so that was Sunday in a moment we're going to look at what happens next but first we're going to go back in history to Nelson Mandela speaking at his inauguration on May 10th 1994 after thec Victory um in that election that ended a parate and brought Mandela to the presidency the time for the healing of the wounds has come the moment to preach the cousins that devis us has come the time to build is upon us we have at last achieved our political emancipation we pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty deprivation suffering gender and other discrimination we succeeded to take our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative peace we commit ourselves to the construction of a complete just and Lasting peace for more we're continuing with our two guests in South Africa in Johannesburg Trevor uan is a Soo based activist chair of the united front an umbrella body of community and labor organizations and in Cape Town we're joined by Lewis fredberg born and raised in South Africa veteran journalists who covered Nelson Van Mandela back then in 1994 also covered the anti- apartate movement that transition to democracy reporting now for the nation mag so we're going to start with Trevor and Guan and talk about what's happened over the last 30 years According to some estimates the gap between the richest and poorest South Africans is greater than it was when Nelson Mandela took office in '94 um you have over 40% unemployment almost 2third of black South Africans still live in poverty compared to 1% of white South Africans uh can you talk about out um what you had to overcome by 1994 and then where the party took South Africa ANC I mean uh the party yes when the party thec took over you know it was the culmination and the Victory of the anti- aparate strug so the first step was to get rid of a racially based Constitution a racially based for of state to usher in democracy where everyone could vote that was achieved and indeed when Mandela was speaking in that clip you played Amy he talked about and marveled that the transition to democra was peaceful of course we know that there was a lot of political violence between 1990 up to 94 you know the day of Liberation nevertheless uh it's true in the sense that the election on Wednesday uh when the ANC lost its majority the National Liberation party it was just an ordinary day in South Africa an ordinary election it was peaceful it was come so I think that is a great achievement upon which we can build of course H black people in particular workers did not have all the basics in life such as electricity you know uh famous townships uh in Black areas in South Africa like Alexandra next to stin are called Dark cities because there was no electricity black people they use their labor to dig out the coal to build the electricity pylons but they lived in darkness so that is one of the first thing the democratic government did it laid out electricity to about 80 % of the black population also housing was laid out but of course all these things were undermined by poor management poor maintenance and in particular the fact that most of the money was still finding its way into the pockets of big Capital because basically what Mandela did he was trying to square around Peg he wanted a balance peaceful Co coexistence between the exploiter and the exploited he wanted peace between those who took the land by force and those who were dispossessed I think after 30 years the wheels are coming off this work on the ship is sinking and in fact the ANC could have done better to manage the situation but they failed so leis freeberg as you continue um to describe what happened over this 30 years let's also talk about the way forward at this point of course it doesn't mean thec is out of politics they have a um a large plurality um but they do have to work now in Coalition and what parties will it be working in Coalition with and what do you see the key issues as well right now a lot of discussions are going on well I think tomorrow there's you know every day there's serious discussions to see who's going to join this Coalition I did just want to say Amy that um the situation as described is is grim in terms of the conditions in the country but there are some major accomplishments I mean just even having Fair free and fair elections as as Sosa pointed out no president in South Africa has served more than one term as opposed to presidents for life in other parts of Africa and the world there is a constitutional Court um I went around to rallies of new parties being formed no security police like they would have been in the old days you can say what you want to there's a free press so um democracy in some ways is flourishing in South Africa but as my good friend Rich shondo said you can't eat democracy and uh that that is that is the problem and uh so the the issue going going forward is uh certainly preserving the democracy and I and I do think it is an accomplishment that these elections did occur peacefully and so on and it was quite moving to travel around the country and go to polling booths and so on this is an accomplishment and that this has to be safeguarded but now the challenge is how do you undo some of the damage how do you get the lights back on I'll just say the last few weeks the last two months they have been no power outages in South Africa uh as opposed to these major power outages called load shedding here for the last several years many people saw this as a sort of an electoral stunt and that they're anticipating the lights going out you know shortly I heard people are charging up all their appliances uh because they really don't believe that the a andc will be able to really M make a difference so um th those are some of some of the issues as to how who is going to be in the best position to undo the damage try to build back some of these institutions that have failed um and um that's that's that is the big question so Trevor Guan um if you can talk about your group the united front an umbrella body of community and labor organizations how much support has thec retained among labor organizations and unions and what are they demanding now so uh the united front of which I'm the chairperson was formed by the biggest Union in South Africa numsa the national Union of metal workers of South Africa remember that numsa in 2013 on the back of the Marana Massacre numsa broke out of thec Communist Party KATU Alliance the Communist Party of South Africa and the biggest Union Federation in South Africa KATU are in a formal alliance with the ruling party forming what Antonio gr she called a histo a historic block so they are running the country unfortunately it's at the expans of Labor because the union leaders actually basically done to the music of thec in return they get Plum ministerial positions when they retire from their unions so you get them becoming minister of employment minister of this minister of that so that Alliance is at the expense not only of organized labor but also of the poor of the unemployed of pensioners because basically the alliance allows the the ANC to continue failing to deliver on its promises so when numsa split from the ANC it was even called the numsa moment it gave hope that the unions at least numsa and those with numsa would be able to form a strong left Challenge and even a Workers Party however that experiment did not succeed because basically although numsa split from the but the politics of nationalism I'm sorry the politics of sism still lived in the heads of the leadership so I think that now the time has come to recalibrate our politics to live behind exhausted nationalism to get rid of neocolonialism to try and B a bigger wedge between us and imperialism and to come with imaginative way forward to make sure that we challenge or at least make inroads to what is basically racial capitalism you know South Africa is a settler colonial society this is what is is needed too much was taken me a lot must be returned the land was stolen it must be returned the world was stolen we must take back the world unfortunately although the the economic freedom uh Fighters although Zuma and his MK uh party they mou these slogans I don't trust that they can do this but I think probably the NC has got no choice but to actually make a coalition with these parties and then we on the left we have to form a new political vehicle a Workers Party a mass party which can challenge for state power you mentioned Zionism and I wanted to ask Lewis freeberg about how popular the move by South Africa was to take a genocide case against Israel to the international court of justice and continue to pursue this issue demanding emergency relief as the final decision will take quite a long time well I'd say that it as the support of the majority of South Africans not in the many in the Jewish Community some in the Jewish community of course supported it um I think one of the things that there there was speculation that one of the reasons that thec took this on which you know given everything else going on what was the rationale for taking on this very high-profile case in the middle of a campaign uh was to really um you know boost its support in the Western Cape here amongst the Muslim Community and that didn't happen the Muslim Community stuck with the Democratic Alliance so um um I'm not sure what the political Fallout will be but um certainly there there's support here in South Africa uh amongst you know probably the majority of people but I I did want to say that um one of the issues thec faces now in terms of forming a coalition is that really the only party that actually had experience in governing is other than thec is the Democratic Alliance and um I think if the if some Alliance is formed with the economic freedom front or potentially the zumas party these are just parties on paper theyve had no real experience in governing and there has been some coalitions at a local level in Johannesburg and other places and those coalitions have been semi disastrous so the problem with the ition is you have to form alliances it's a forced marriage with people you wouldn't want to get into bed with uh but this is this is what happens when you lose the majority so compromises are going to have to be made and uh the question is if s Ram opposer tries to form an alliance with a democratic Alliance um whether uh the the the forces more on the left will uh revolt and force him out um I do think that there's a very strong feeling in in certainly amongst many progressives around the country that if the if the the Coalition is made with the economic freedom front um that would be very very problematic and that we're going to see more of the same in terms of what's happened over the last several decades let me ask Trevor a question about MK and about Jacob Zuma um to many who you know followed of course South African history and were part of the anti apartate movement um and K withis way MK was the paramilitary wing the armed wing of thec um where is it today 30 years later well um veterans many of them of course got absorbed into the NC got jobs in the state got jobs in the Army but some uh were left outside and are disgruntled um so basically when Zuma formed it's because as a party now it's because his faction inside the ANC lost power to the extent that he couldn't finish his second term as president and was replaced by the president Raposa so so basically is a faction of thec outside thec indeed julias Mala you know the leader of the economic freedom fighters put it quite well he said hey we e were ready to have a coalition with MK you know and with the ANC we are relatives so I think leis is correct that there is that apprehension that these are all bits of the same further they just quibbling over power inside the palce another important point is that actually when people voted for Mk many of those arec members who is taking half a step away from their beloved ANC so Zuma projects himself as representing the truec so in a way the in South Africa is to win the masses win as in win the baby from the milk of their love for the NC so I think that although not so positively you know this election did achieve that because For the First Time the ANC no longer dominates in terms of parliamentary majority I sure that in the next elections especially in 5 years national election the NC will fall much further lose more and there'll be more scope to create real alternative parties real policies which will challenge what we call here white Monopoly Capital which will challenge imperialism okay the NC did a great thing you know going to the icj and all but it has not done as much as it should have done in fighting on the side supporting the Palestinians leis freeberg your final comment yes I just want to say this in with calling the party I mean that's more or less a joke because Inon does not exist anymore this was the armed wing of the annc that Nelson Mandela was instrumental in setting up before he was sent to sentenced to life in prison so taking this name is just a way to try to confuse people as to who represents whom and to try to claim the mantle of Nelson Mandela but I just wanted to I just wanted to clarify uh clarify that and and of course Jacob Zuma was the past president of South Africa as well he was the past president of South Africa for for eight nine years and it was under his watch that there was really this corruption got completely out of control this terms State capture which where uh outside corrupt forces just robbed the treasury of funding which is one of the reasons that the country is in such bad shape why this economy is is growing at 6% I mean it's essentially a stagnant economy the worst economy in terms of GDP growth on the continent other than Equatorial Guinea and Sudan which you know is is the middle of a war this is one of the should be one of the strongest economies on the continent it's certainly one of the largest economies on the continent and the fact that it is so stag economy is so stagnant which is why so many people have out of work the key challenge is how to get the economy going again and I'm certainly hoping that That's the basis on which the decision will be made as to which what Coalition is formed in the next couple of weeks and by the way they have 14 days under the Constitution and if you know anything about South African politics maybe politics in general to get something of this magnitude nailed down in 14 days is going to be very difficult and we'll just see how all this plays out and of course we'll continue to cover it leis freedberg and South African journalist rights for the nation here in the United States we'll link to your articles and Trevor angan suo based activist and chair of the united front speaking to us from Johannesburg democracy Now is funded by viewers like you please give today at democracynow.org

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Length: 31min 19sec (1879 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 03 2024