Elections: MK Party haunts ANC

As the counting of votes neared the 50% mark on Thursday, a great deal of jostling for coalition possibilities had already begun among political parties contesting the governing of South Africa.

About 26 million South Africans were registered to vote in Wednesday’s elections, with 52 parties contesting, while scores of others came out to make their mark during special votes on Monday and Tuesday.

As the results started trickling in at the National Results Operations Centre (Roc) in Midrand, there was a push for the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) to play open cards on who they would be getting into bed with after the results announcement.

The ANC breakaway party, led by former president Jacob Zuma, seemed to be leaning towards kingmaker after the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) had counted about 27% of the vote.

The MKP was third after the ANC and DA in second place last night.

MKP national spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said the MKP did not enter the elections to be in any coalitions as the mandate was a clear two-thirds majority. However, he said it was still too early to paint the real picture of their performance.

“Remember, we came into this thing to win it. We didn’t come into this to form any coalitions. But I understand their eagerness, and it’s important to demonstrate that in four months to arrive at this point is truly remarkable, there’s no doubt about that. So we are happy so far, but we will be happier when we see ourselves right at the top,“ he said.

On what the party will be bringing should it take KwaZulu-Natal, Ndhlela said a lot needed to be done to get the City of eThekwini and the entire province of KZN back to where it belongs.

“South Africans are fed up and tired. And with that being the case, the reality is that people are going to respond. This is people responding to the arrogance of those that had been in leadership positions.

“President Zuma is a president that people trust. He is the people’s president, they know that under Jacob Zuma things were happening,” he said.

EFF spokesperson Sixolise Gcilishe refused to be drawn to comment on the numbers, saying even though they were promising, it was still too early to make conclusive remarks.

“The numbers do look promising. We, however, do not want to comment on the numbers just yet. Maybe in a day or two, we will be able to comment,” she said.

While parties were looking to team up with the MKP, the ANC did not want to talk about coalitions, saying they were confident of a straight win.

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe instead changed tack, blaming journalists for “punting” a theme to “force a change”, and “behaving like politicians”.

DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille said she was not worried about the early results.

“The metros have not come in yet and the metros of course are where the DA has its major vote so I keep very calm in all circumstances,” said Zille.

She, however, said the Patriotic Alliance performance represented a kind of ethnic identity.

“I think that the Patriotic Alliance’s growth is primarily scooping up all the small parties like GOOD, like the PBI (Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners). They have taken a big chunk from the ANC and of course they have also taken some of our votes.

“Now that represents a kind of ethnic identity vote, if I can put it that way.

That should worry every single South African,” Zille added.

GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron said the results were still largely rural, as was the case across the country.

“Our voters have been urban. We wait to see what comes in from the urban areas. We need to have the more densely populated areas results captured so it is too early to tell for ours as far as we are concerned. We expect once the city result has come that the picture will change for ourselves, we hope so,” Herron said.

Briefing the media at 8pm, IEC’s general manager for electoral matters Granville Abrahams said 55.65% of the votes have been captured, but the electoral body was conducting accuracy and verification.

Cape Times