By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on his party members to ensure that through campaigning and visibility across the country, the party wins with an out-right majority in next year’s general elections.
The party concluded its two-day national elections workshop, held at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
The workshop was organised by the office of the ANC’s Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, and seeks to pave a way forward building up to the 2024 General Elections.
Ramaphosa was addressing delegates to the party’s elections strategy workshop in Boksburg, via a recorded message, as he is in Burundi on government business.
Ramaphosa says the ANC has an obligation to make sure that victory is certain in 2024.
“If we can master this, how we carry our campaign forward, how we plaster the whole country, wall to wall with an ANC message, and have really effective volunteers as of old in our campaigning method, this election is ours, and victory is certain.”
Many political parties have vowed to ensure that the ANC dips below 50% of the vote, which will mean a coalition will be eminent in South Africa.
ANC leaders seek to find ways which could assist the governing party to gain a sufficient number of votes to remain in power. In the 2019 elections, the party won with 57% of votes which translated to 230 seats in parliament.
Meanwhile a recent Social Research Foundation poll shows the ruling ANC would garner 52% support, while the biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, would get 24%.
The poll canvassed the views of 1,517 registered voters across a range of age groups, races and regions.
The poll also showed that the EFF, which was formed in 2013 on a platform of nationalizing everything from land to banks, may be losing steam just over a year before elections.
While support for the ANC and DA is stable “that for the EFF is down sharply,” the SRF said, cautioning though that the survey had a national margin of error of 4%.
If the impact of voter turnout were disregarded, the EFF would win 8.4% support, the ANC 45.9% and the DA 23.3%, the poll showed.