It’s not the long weekend we had been hoping for, but the President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has given us a date to go to the ballots.
The seventh general election will be on 29 May 2024, the presidency announced on Tuesday, 20 February 2024.
Dubbed by many #2024isOur1994, these national and provincial elections are expected to be a watershed moment. The 27th of April is annually observed as Freedom Day, a public holiday that was instituted in commemoration of SA's first democratic elections on 27 April 1994.
Support for the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), which won the first general election in 1994 with a decisive majority of votes may take a significant dip, 30 years later.
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In the 1999 and 2004 elections, the ANC – bolstered by the support of its alliance partners – remained the former liberation movement-turned government representing the will of the majority of the electorate, with 69,69% and 65,90% votes respectively.
However, this may be the first time the ANC loses a significant number of votes due to the rampant corruption, decline of infrastructure, cronyism, record unemployment, particularly among youth, loadshedding and erosion of constitutional values that have defined the past three decades of democracy under the governing party.
“Several polls predict that the party once widely admired across the world and led by Nelson Mandela will slip below 50% of the vote for the first time since it won South Africa’s first all-race election in 1994 to herald a new democracy following the end of white minority rule,” news agency AFP reports.
“If it loses its majority, the ANC would need to enter into a coalition to remain in government and keep Ramaphosa – a political protege of Mandela – as president for a second and final five-year term. South Africa has never had a coalition at national level because of the ANC’s dominance.”
Announcing the date of the 2024 General Election on Wednesday, the office of the President acknowledged how significant these elections will be.
“Beyond the fulfilment of our constitutional obligation, these upcoming elections are also a celebration of our democratic journey and a determination of the future that we all desire,” Ramaphosa said in a press statement released last night.
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“I call on all South Africans to exercise their democratic right to vote and for those who will be campaigning to do so peacefully, within the full observance of the law. We also urge unregistered voters to use the online registration platform to register.”
“The 2024 elections coincide with South Africa’s celebration of 30 years of freedom and democracy. Therefore, President Ramaphosa calls on all eligible voters to fully participate in this important and historic milestone of our democratic calendar,” Vincent Magwenya, Spokesperson to President Ramaphosa, added.
