Seven South African opposition groups have agreed to cooperate more closely as the nation moves towards elections in 2024 following a two-day summit and months of negotiations.
The Multi-Party Charter is signed during the ceremony by representatives of the various parties, who claim that doing so will open the door for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress to be overthrown.
They claimed that the country is being misgoverned and that the rule of law is not being upheld, and they appealed to various parties that were not a part of the formation to join them in their efforts to ensure that the ANC is ousted from office.
- The Coalition
The African National Congress (ANC) could lose its legislative majority in 2024 and thereby the president for the first time since the start of democracy in 1994.
The backdrop for this is a faltering economy characterized by unemployment, an extraordinary energy crisis, and rising disgust with corruption.
“We are extending another invitation because we think there are political parties that would be a good fit”, Siviwe Gwarube, a representative of the Democratic Alliance (DA), said on the sidelines of a coalition meeting in Johannesburg.
“They could increase our numbers”, she added, not disclosing calculations on the coalition’s current chances of winning at the ballot box.
In preparation for the 2024 elections, the DA announced a cooperation with six smaller parties last month.
The extreme left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the third-largest political party in the nation, are not included in this coalition.
According to polls, the DA, which holds one-fifth of the seats in Parliament, might garner 16% of the vote. Parliament currently has fourteen parties.
“Our mission is to overthrow the ANC, exclude the EFF and establish a multi-party government”, the coalition parties stressed in a joint statement.
“We have not forgotten history, but this nation must stop living in it”, added Neil de Beer, head of the United Independent Movement, which is in the coalition. He was referring to the ANC, which has been in power since the end of apartheid.
In the local elections of 2021, the storied party for the first time slipped below the 50% threshold. In December, President Cyril Ramaphosa, 70, was reappointed. If the ANC wins, he will be given a second term as president.
