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ANC’s toughest test as voters want jobs, land reform and end to corruption

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People line up to cast their vote at Moses Kotane primary in Braamfischerville on Wednesday (May  8 2019). Picture: Tebogo Letsie/City Press
People line up to cast their vote at Moses Kotane primary in Braamfischerville on Wednesday (May 8 2019). Picture: Tebogo Letsie/City Press

Queues started growing at polling stations through the morning as South Africans go to make their mark in the country’s parliamentary and provincial elections today.

The ANC is facing its toughest electoral test as it seeks to reverse a slide in support from voters frustrated by graft and racial inequalities a generation after it won power in South Africa’s first all-race poll.

Officials have not said when the final results will be announced.

The national election is the first under President Cyril Ramaphosa, who replaced scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma as head of state in February 2018 after four years as Zuma’s deputy.

Opinion polls suggest the ANC will again win a majority of the 400 seats in the National Assembly, but analysts have predicted its margin of victory will fall, particularly in major cities.

“I’m a member of the ANC but I didn’t vote for them this time,” said construction worker Thabo Makhene (32) in the commercial hub of Johannesburg.

“They need to catch a wake-up. The way they run the state, mishandling state funds, they’ve lost their morals.”

Pete Mokokosi, a 77-year-old pensioner, said he felt South Africans needed change, a better economy, education and jobs.

“The weather changes every day, why can’t we,” he said as he waited to vote in Soweto.

The ANC’s biggest challengers are main opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

The ANC, which has governed South Africa since the end of white minority rule in 1994, won 62% of the vote in 2014’s parliamentary election, down from 2009 and far short of its best result, 69% in 2004 under President Thabo Mbeki.

People line up to cast their vote at Moses Kotane primary in Braamfischerville on Wednesday (May 8 2019). Picture: Tebogo Letsie/City Press
DA leader Mmusi Maimane casts his vote at the Presbyterian church in Dobsonville on Wednesday (May 8 2019). Picture: Tebogo Letsie/City Press
IEC officials set up signs near the Presbyterian church in Dobsonville on Wednesday (May 8 2019). Picture: Tebogo Letsie/City Press
People line up to cast their vote at Moses Kotane primary in Braamfischerville on Wednesday (May 8 2019). Picture: Tebogo Letsie/City Press
The queues are long but the mood is jovial in Braamfischerville
DA leader Mmusi Maimane gets his proof of voting
Voters queue to cast their ballots in South Africa’s parliamentary and provincial elections in Alexandra, Johannesburg,

ANC challengers

Analysts have put that falling support down to corruption allegations against government officials, a slowing economy with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, and demands from black citizens for more equitable distribution of land.

“The belief is that a poor showing for the ANC would embolden Ramaphosa’s opponents and risk a potential leadership challenge,” Razia Khan, chief Africa economist at Standard Chartered, said in a research report.

Ramaphosa – who became ANC leader after narrowly defeating a faction allied with Zuma – has promised to improve service delivery, create jobs and fight corruption. But his reforms have been held up by divisions and opposition within his own party.

“Reforms will remain at best one-step-forward-one-step-back and so potential growth will not rise,” Peter Attard Montalto, head of capital markets research at Intellidex, said in a note.

Africa’s most industrialised economy grew an estimated 0.8% in 2018 after recovering from a recession in the first half of the year when a drought hit farming, although blackouts at power utility Eskom continue to drag on activity. Growth is forecast at 1.5% this year.

The centre-right DA won 22% of the parliamentary vote in 2014. It appointed its first black leader Mmusi Maimane in 2015 and made headlines by leading coalition victories in local government elections in Pretoria and Johannesburg a year later.

But splits within the party and with allies could see support for the DA wane.

“Fear says to us let’s stick with what we know, hope says lets bring change,” Maimane said after casting his ballot in Soweto in Johannesburg.

Ramaphosa and Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, were due to vote later. – Reuters

An election official prepares boxes at a polling station in Alexandra ahead of the elections
Inkatha Freedom Party agents are seen near a polling station ahead of the elections in the farmlands near Eshowe. Picture: Rogan Ward/Reuters
A voter waits to cast his ballot at a polling station in Nkandla. Picture: Rogan Ward/Reuters
An elderly voter casts her ballot a polling station in Seshego. Picture: Marius Bosch/Reuters
Nompumelelo Ntuli, wife of former President Jacob Zuma, casts her ballot in Nkandla. Picture: Rogan Ward/Reuters
Supporters of the ANC sell fruit at a polling station in Nkandla. Picture: Rogan Ward/Reuters
A voter casts his ballot at a polling station in Soweto. Picture: Mike Hutchings/Reuters

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