South Africa’s main opposition party rallies support as it concludes election campaign

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, on Sunday made its final appeal to South Africans to help it topple the ruling African National Congress as it wrapped up its campaign ahead of this week’s elections.

The Democratic Alliance is South Africa’s largest opposition party and has brought together some smaller opposition parties to form a pact known as the Multi-Party Charter for South Africa, in which a group of political parties will combine their votes to challenge the ruling ANC. after the elections.

Sunday’s rally coincided with that of the small opposition Inkatha Freedom Party, which is based in the populous province of KwaZulu Natal and has pledged to work with the main opposition.

Recent polls and analysts have suggested that the ANC could receive less than 50% of the national vote. The Democratic Alliance is under pressure after its support declined in the last national election and several of its former leaders left the party to form new political parties that will compete in the polls.

Its leaders and supporters turned out in their thousands on Sunday in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, where their blue flags and match memorabilia decorated a small stadium in the city.

“Make no mistake, if DA voters stay home, or split the vote among many small parties on the ballot, then our country’s next chapter could be even uglier than the past,” said party leader John Steenhuisen.

“If we sit back and allow a coalition between the ANC, the (Economic Freedom Fighters) and (uMkhonto weSizwe), aided by the traitors in the Patriotic Alliance, then our tomorrow will be much, much worse than yesterday. It will be the end of the world for South Africa,” he said to loud applause.

A coalition between the DA and other parties, including the Patriotic Alliance, in the Johannesburg council after the 2021 local government elections collapsed, returning power to an ANC-led coalition and sparking political animosity between the two parties.

Steenhuisen has repeatedly accused the ruling ANC and the leftist opposition Economic Freedom Fighters party of planning to form a coalition after the election.

Speaking ahead of his final rally in the KwaZulu-Natal town of Richards Bay on Sunday, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Velenkosini Hlabisa said his main goal was to overthrow the current government.

“The IFP is campaigning to remove the ANC from power and become part of the government at the policy-making level and also reduce the ANC to less than 50% at the national level.

“We call on people to take action and vote for the IFP to remove the government that has failed them,” Hlabisa said.

He said most negotiations would take place after the results were known. Hlabisa highlighted unemployment, poverty, crime and the country’s electricity crisis as some of the major problems facing South Africans.

“We all know the crisis we face, we all know the depth of the struggle in South Africa and the daily trauma that so many people endure. “What the country needs to hear is that there is a way out,” he stated.

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Mutsaka reported from Richards Bay, South Africa.

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AP News Africa: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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Associated Press writer Farai Mutsaka reported from Richards Bay, South Africa.