(17 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Johannesburg, South Africa - 17 May 2024
++STARTS ON SOUNDBITE++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Mogomotsi Magome, Associated Press:
"South Africa will be holding what is expected to be very highly contested elections this year, which are taking place exactly 30 years since the country gained political freedom in 1994. The African National Congress has been in power since then, but is expected to face very stiff competition from opposition parties. In fact, some analysts and recent polls are suggesting that the party might just get less than 50% of the national vote. If that happens, it will need to form a coalition with much smaller parties to remain in power. Now, the country's recent experiences with coalitions hasn't been that pleasant. In fact, most of these have collapsed at the local government level. The country has been facing a myriad of challenges, rising levels of poverty, rising levels of crime and an unemployment rate, which is now considered to be one of the highest in the world at more than 32%. As South Africans head to the polls on the 29th of May, they will be hoping to vote for a party that will address all of these challenges."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Pretoria - 22 June 2022
2. Wide of Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at media briefing
3. Zondo handing over the final part of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture to Ramaphosa
4. Ramaphosa holding the report
5. Zondo and Ramaphosa shaking hands
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Johannesburg, South Africa - 31 July 2022
6. Various of Ramaphosa addressing members of the African National Congress (ANC) at the party's policy conference
STORYLINE:
South Africa's upcoming election will determine how weary the country has become of the ruling African National Congress party that has been in power since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC are struggling to keep their parliamentary majority and opinion polls predict that the party will likely receive less than 50% of the national vote for the first time in the May 29 election.
That doesn't mean that the beleaguered ANC will be out of power in Africa's most advanced economy.
Even as the famous organization once led by Nelson Mandela has seen a decline in its popularity, no one has risen to a position to replace it. Instead, South Africans who have turned away from the ANC have gone looking for answers among an array of opposition parties.
So, the ANC is still expected to gain the largest share of votes. But without an outright majority, it would need to form a coalition to stay in government and keep Ramaphosa for a second and final term as president. For a key country on the African continent, that might bring new complications, given some recent coalitions at local level have been spectacular failures.
While most South Africans appear ready to register their disgruntlement with the ANC in a defining moment, a coalition government may not easily solve the country's big problems, which include the world’s highest levels of unemployment and inequality.
AP video shot by Nqobile Ntshangase
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