Cape Town - Politically, 2024, will be marked as one of the most transformative years in South African history.
For the first time, we saw a challenge to the ANC’s hegemony, and a split in the opposition forces to its left, which saw the party of Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela cling to power despite its worst electoral decline since 1994.
The price it had to pay was going into coalition with the official opposition – the DA – a decision, by the ANC’s national executive, which has had reverberations throughout the year.
But the political year started, as it usually does with the ANC’s January 8 Statement which this year marked the party’s 112th anniversary but which was also used to rally its supporters and ground forces ahead of May’s general elections.
Amidst the cake-cutting and the revelry of the ruling party’s birthday celebrations was a constant stream of bad news – various polls predicted its support would fall below 50%.
Most analysts blamed the ANC’s bad fortune on the post-Covid 19 economic decline and Eskom’s inability to maintain power supply as the utility ran out of excuses for load-shedding.
A slew of new political parties emerged, ensuring that 2024’s national ballot paper would be the longest one since 1994, along with the new provisions being made for independent candidates after Constitutional Court intervention.
As usually par for the course, ahead of a general election, the omission or rather the position of prominent names on the electoral lists of the parties was also the source of internal conflicts – particularly in the ANC.
Several government senior Cabinet members indicated, ahead of the elections, that they would not be returning to serve in the seventh democratic Parliament.
Amongst those passing on the baton were former Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and former Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
When election day eventually came, polls accurately predicted the outcome with the ANC getting just under 40% of the vote, its majority decimated in its traditional stronghold of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Acknowledging the outcome of the elections, Ramaphosa said it “represents a victory for our democracy, for our constitutional order and for all the people of South Africa”.
But his and the ANC’s acceptance of the election results was in stark contrast to that of Jacob Zuma’s MK Party (MKP) which sought legal appeals to reverse the outcome, particularly in KZN where it was the majority party with 45%.
As predicted the ANC and the DA formed a coalition but to give it more legitimacy, smaller parties were invited to form the “Government of National Unity”.
An agreement between the ANC and the DA on the workings of the GNU– a Statement of Intent – was signed on June 14 ahead of the first meeting of the seventh parliament.
The foundational principles of the GNU emphasise respect for the Constitution. Both the MKP and the EFF have remained steadfast in their calls for the Constitution to be amended – party clauses which protect property rights.
A consequence of the EFF’s lacklustre electoral performance – finishing in fourth place nationally – was a slew of defections from the party, most notably its former deputy president Floyd Shivambu.
The SACP’s decision to contest elections independently also sent shockwaves through the Tripartite Alliance.