What You Need to Know About the Upcoming Elections in South Africa

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced May 29 as the date for the country’s national and provincial elections -- an election that's been dubbed, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, as the “most unpredictable election of the post-apartheid era.” Since gaining independence in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) has had a stronghold in Parliament and provided all the five Presidents that have ruled Africa’s third-largest economy, including the current president.

However, South Africans are becoming disillusioned with the situation in the country, and polls have shown that, for the first time, the ANC may fail to get the majority vote. As more political eyes focus on South Africa in the run-up to the elections, here is what you need to know about the current landscape.

The youth have something to say

According to Sy Mamabolo, Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission, 77 percent of new voter registrations between November and February, were under 29. Plettenberg Bay-based writer Afrika Sebezo told OkayAfrica that opportunities for young people will be among the key determining issues in the election. “Unemployment is one of the issues young people have been vocal about. Youth development has stalled generally, but the most pressing issue is youth unemployment,” he says. Among South Africans aged 15-24 years old, the unemployment rate is 60.7 percent, as noted by the agency, Statistics SA.

While registration figures have been encouraging, observers say young people, who've been using social media to express their frustrations, still need to come out and vote. “Prioritizing voter registration ensures that we secure our chance to participate in the democratic process. I encourage all South Africans to register and show up to vote on the day,” youth activist Aluwani Ramalumo tells OkayAfrica.

The former president's new party

Jacob Zuma, the liberation stalwart who was president between 2009 and 2018, has said he won’t be voting for the ANC. He has thrown his weight behind uMkhonto weSizwe, a new political party and has immediately become its face. This follows legal woes that came after his ousting in 2018, when, after leaving office, Zuma was subjected to an inquiry into his dealings as president. He refused to appear before the commission and was charged with contempt of court.

Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison, but only spent two months there after being released on medical parole. Since then, he has been bitter against the ANC leadership, whom he alleges have been targeting him. Although uMkhonto weSizwe -- which claimed to have registered two million members in two days -- has not expressly publicized their presidential candidate, Zuma hinted at the possibility of returning to government, to “fix things,” at a religious gathering in Ndwendwe, Durban

“The suggestion that uMkhonto we Sizwe has more than a million members is information that is coming from the party but has not been audited by an independent body," says Shepherd Mpofu, a Professor of Media and Humanities at the University of South Africa. "So, we cannot claim that it is false or true, but it seems highly likely to be untrue."

New parties barely tilt the political landscape in South Africa in their first election, but Zuma’s party could eat into the ANC’s vote in Kwazulu-Natal where he commands a strong following. Kwazulu-Natal boasts 20.75 percent of registered voters, as seen on the Independent Electoral Commission website.

“This party is expected to dominate. For a long time, Inkhata Freedom Party and the ANC have been dominating Kwazulu-Natal in terms of political popularity," says Professor Mpofu. "And the uMkhonto weSizwe veterans now pose a huge challenge to the two parties. Zuma is expected to do well in this region."

Load shedding and service delivery questions

According to Sebezo, load shedding and corruption are the most pressing matters across demographics in the South African election. The country’s Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa recently told citizens that load shedding is not going anywhere soon. Currently, the country is in stage 3, which means households spend 18 hours without power during a four-day period. These issues, compounded with an unrelenting crime rate and deteriorating public infrastructure, have made South Africans disillusioned with the ruling ANC.

Other political figures

For a party like the Patriotic Alliance, led by Gayton Mackenzie and Kenny Kunene, playing on the issue of illegal immigrants is key to their strategy in finding favor with those who blame people from outside the country for the lack of job opportunities. To date, the Patriotic Alliance has besieged illegal crossing points, attacked spaza shops and most recently they went to Esikhisini Primary School in Pretoria protesting the teaching of Shona -- the most spoken language in Zimbabwe -- there.

Mackenzie and the Patriotic Alliance seek to provide a political home to the thousands of South Africans who were throwing their weight behind sprouting vigilante groups like Operation Dudula, but will they be enough to cause an upset to the order?

And then there’s Julius Malema, the Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) leader, who is well known for his speeches and political performances, but who has not been able to convert the traction to votes. In 2019, the EFF only managed 10.8 percent of the total vote, and there’s no doubt Malema would like for 2024 to be his time to shine.