President Cyril Ramaphosa’s party ANC is facing many serious allegations of corruption.
In South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa has become the country’s president for the second consecutive time. According to BBC News, Ramaphosa’s African National Congress Party (ANC) has formed an alliance with the largest opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) to form the government. With this, the coalition government now has 283 out of 400 seats in the Parliament.
With this, this is the first time in the last 30 years that the ANC party formed by Nelson Mandela has formed a coalition government in the country. Actually, general elections were held in South Africa on 29 May. In this, Nelson Mandela’s party African National Congress got the highest 40% votes, but it missed the majority. At the same time, ANC’s biggest rival party DA got 22% votes.
In the picture, ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa shakes hands with coalition member DA party leader John Steenhuisen.
President said – A new era has begun in the country.
After the announcement of the coalition, President Ramaphosa said, “It is an honour for me to get the opportunity to serve the country for the second time. Parties that were opposing each other have come together today and formed a government. This is the beginning of a new era in South Africa.”
After not getting majority in the elections, ANC was trying to form a coalition for the last 2 weeks. After this, on Friday, the two biggest parties of the country came together and announced to form the government. According to news agency Reuters, the reason for the defeat of the ANC party, which was invincible in South Africa for 30 years, is believed to be the increasing poverty, crime, corruption and inequality in the country.
The entry of the DA party in the country’s government is being seen as an important change. DA has long been opposed to many policies implemented by Mandela’s party to empower blacks. They say that these policies benefit the politicians and not the black community. The development of the citizens of South Africa will happen through good governance and a strong economy.
Blacks got the right to vote in 1994.
Black people were not allowed to vote in South Africa before 1994. People had struggled for years against the system based on apartheid. After its end, the first fully democratic elections were held in the country. The first parliamentary elections were held in South Africa in 1994.
Among them, Nelson Mandela was leading the African National Congress. ANC got 62.5 percent votes. ANC got its biggest success in the year 2004. Then it got around 70 percent votes. Since then, the vote percentage of the party has continued to decline.
In the last election held in 2019, the African National Congress got the lowest number of votes i.e. 57.50 percent. ANC has won all the 6 elections held so far in South Africa.
What were the election issues in South Africa this time?
South Africa is considered the most advanced country in the African continent. Despite this, poverty and unemployment have reached its peak in the country. According to the World Bank, the unemployment rate in South Africa has reached 32. Understand it like this that 32 out of 100 people do not have a job. In the first quarter of 2024, it had crossed 33.
The youth unemployment rate in the country is also quite high. 45.50 percent of the youth in the age group of 15-35 are unemployed. This is the highest in the world. Along with this, more than half the people are below the poverty line. South Africa has the highest inequality rate in the world. That is, the gap between rich and poor is very deep here.
According to a CNN report, about 81 percent of South Africa’s population is black, most of whom are living in extreme poverty. At the same time, 19 percent of whites have more resources. They have jobs and are getting higher salaries than blacks. After 30 years of freedom from white supremacy, blacks now feel that the African National Congress (ANC) has not done a good job to improve their standard of living.
Apart from this, the public is troubled by the ever-increasing crime incidents and corruption cases of politicians in the country. Also, the increase in power cuts in the country has further increased the anger of the countrymen. According to the report of Al Jazeera, in 2018, there was a power cut of 141 hours. In the year 2023, it increased to 6947 hours.
