Arousing attention! This country has undergone a major political change

On June 19, Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president-elect and chairman of the ruling African National Congress, was sworn in in the administrative capital Pretoria.

According to the 2024 general election vote count results released by the South African Independent Electoral Commission on June 2, the ANC won 159 seats out of 400 in the National Assembly elections, and lost the right to form a government alone because it did not have a majority. On June 14, the ANC and the largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, reached an agreement on the formation of a national unity government. The Inkatha Freedom Party, the Good Party and the Patriotic Alliance were also invited to join, and ANC Chairman Ramaphosa was re-elected president.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attends a meeting of the African National Congress' National Executive Committee in Johannesburg on June 6.

There have been major changes in South Africa's political arena, and the next step of the National Unity Government has attracted attention.

After the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994, the political party structure has been constantly adjusted, with the ANC as the leader and the Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters as the main opposition parties. However, the situation has changed drastically after the election results came out.

The ANC's position as the dominant party has been greatly weakened. After the establishment of the new South Africa in 1994, the ANC gradually established its position as the dominant party, and it has won the ruling position alone with more than 50% of the votes in all the National Assembly elections. However, this situation was broken in the 2024 general election, when the ANC only won 40.18% of the votes in the National Assembly elections, which was lower than 50%. In the provincial assembly elections, in addition to losing to the Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape Province, the ANC's vote share in Gauteng Province, Kwazul-Natal Province and Northern Cape Province also fell below 50%.

With its good governance in Cape Town and its efforts to establish itself as a non-racial party and a "broad centrist", the Democratic Alliance won 87 seats in the National Assembly with 21.81% of the votes, continuing to maintain its position as the second largest party in South Africa. It eventually joined the Government of National Unity and gained power for the first time since its establishment. At the provincial parliament level, the Democratic Alliance won in the Western Cape Province with 55.30% of the votes, continuing to win the right to govern the province alone.

The National Spear Party, a new party established in December 2023, relied on the strong political appeal of its leader, former President Jacob Zuma, and its broad mass base in the province of Kwazul-Natal, which has a large number of votes. It won 58 seats in the National Assembly with 14.58% of the votes, becoming the third largest party and the largest opposition party in South Africa.

On June 16, Zuma announced that his party, Zweitzenjammerung, would join the newly formed opposition "Progressive Caucus" alliance to check and balance the ruling coalition led by the ANC in the new National Assembly of South Africa. Zuma said in a statement that the political parties that joined the "Progressive Caucus" together controlled about 30% of the seats in the National Assembly, "which puts us in a very strong position to continue to fight for the complete economic liberation of black people and all African people."

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) was impacted by the Umkhontosh Party in provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal, and its vote share dropped from 10.8% in 2019 to 9.52% this time. Its seats in the National Assembly decreased from 44 to 39, and it dropped from the third largest party to the fourth largest party. However, because the Democratic Alliance joined the National Unity Government, it is still the second largest opposition party in South Africa.

The Inkatha Freedom Party became the biggest beneficiary of the 2024 South African general election. Not only did it join the National Unity Government with 3.85% of the votes and 17 seats in the National Assembly, it also won the post of Premier of KwaZulu-Natal through an alliance with the ANC, the Democratic Alliance and the National Liberal Party.

The most direct reason for the poor performance of the ANC in this election is the rise of the National Spear Party and the diversion of a large number of votes. The main force of the National Spear Party is the Zuma faction that split from the ANC. After its establishment, it used KwaZulu-Natal, a province with a large number of votes, as its base to campaign, and eventually won 44.91% of the votes in the province, causing the ANC's vote share in the province to drop sharply from 55.47% in 2019 to 17.62%. In addition, the National Spear Party also won 10.65% of the votes in Gauteng, another province with a large number of votes, which is the main reason why the ANC's vote share in the province dropped from 53.2% in 2019 to 36.47%.

The ANC's declining popularity reflects the pressure of some important socio-economic issues. For example, South Africa's unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2024 was as high as 32.9%, and the unemployment situation among young people was even more serious. In addition, poverty is also a big challenge.

It has been 30 years since South Africa ended its apartheid system, and the ANC government has introduced a series of initiatives such as black economic empowerment to improve the economic status of the black community. However, on issues such as unemployment and poverty, there are still large differences among groups of different skin colors in South Africa, and the overall situation of black people is worse.

This was filmed on June 14 in Cape Town, South Africa, at the first meeting of the new National Assembly of South Africa.

The above-mentioned socio-economic problems have led to growing dissatisfaction among South Africans, especially the black lower classes, with the ANC’s governance. Many people hope for some changes.

The National Unity Government, jointly formed by the ANC, the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party, has now firmly controlled the political situation in South Africa. At the National Assembly level, these five political parties received a total of 68.08% of the votes, occupying 273 seats out of 400 seats; at the provincial government level, the ANC, the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party won the right to govern in all nine provinces. Controlling the political situation in South Africa, especially holding more than two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly, provides a solid foundation for the future governance of the National Unity Government of South Africa.

From the perspective of the political spectrum, the ANC is center-left and the Democratic Alliance is center-right. These two major political parties in the National Unity Government have significant differences in ideology and policy propositions. In particular, the Democratic Alliance has complaints about the ANC's policies on state-owned enterprise reform, black economic empowerment and national health insurance.

How to better coordinate the policy positions of the two parties, find a path that is more suitable for South Africa's social and economic development, and formulate policies that are more in line with South Africa's social and economic development will be the first major challenge facing the National Unity Government.

On June 14, the ANC and the Democratic Alliance signed the "2024 National Unity Government Statement of Intent", which lists the policy areas that the National Unity Government should prioritize in its future governance, including achieving rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, promoting fixed asset investment and industrialization, creating jobs, carrying out land reform and improving infrastructure; vigorously addressing issues such as poverty, inequality and food security to create a more equitable society; improving government governance capabilities and building professional and developmental public service departments; strengthening law enforcement capabilities to effectively deal with crime, corruption and gender-based violence; and effectively exercising the legislative and supervisory functions of parliament.

The 2024 general election has undoubtedly sounded the alarm for the ANC, making it further realize the importance of improving its governance and national governance capabilities, thereby effectively promoting social and economic development and improving people's living standards. When explaining why it wants to form a national unity government with the ANC, John Steenhuizen, chairman of the Democratic Alliance, said that this is a patriotic thing to do, because the Democratic Alliance can use its governance experience accumulated in Cape Town and other places to serve all the people of South Africa.

During the campaign, Ramaphosa admitted that South Africa is currently facing difficulties such as weak economic growth, repeated corruption and deteriorating public security. Analysts believe that ensuring political stability and effective governance to support investment, growth and create jobs will test the new government's ability to govern.