The SACP and Cosatu have vowed to work flat out to keep the ANC in power with a decisive majority after the May 29 polls. Alliance partners say if the ANC dips below 50% in the coming elections, it will be a regression of the gains made in the last 30 years of its rule.
Although poll predictions say the ANC will dip below 50% in the May 29 elections, party President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa without the ANC at the helm, is unimaginable.
“And in the end many people say, we cannot imagine, we cannot imagine this country going forward without the ANC and they are telling the truth,”
And it seems he is not alone in that thought. The SACP says removing the ANC from power will reverse of all the gains made.
“If the ANC loses these elections, this would be a centennial regression of our country because practically the ANC is not fighting in these against some other political parties. We are fighting against Europe, we are fighting against America, we are fighting against imperialism, we are fighting against our erstwhile oppressors who have re-incarnated themselves albeit in a new form supporting all mushrooming political parties just giving them money to make sure that they can bring the ANC below 50%, they will not succeed,” says SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila.
Cosatu also weighed in, saying a coalition government will not be the best outcome.
“We are working to ensure that the ANC does not go below 50%, I can say so as the deputy president of Cosatu that we are not going below 50%. You will know that the coalition once they come into place, nobody’s manifesto is going to be implemented. It will be the question of the elite pact about what the leadership agrees and there will be less consideration about those who have voted. Ourselves as Cosatu, will ensure that that does not happen,” says Cosatu Deputy President Michael Shingange.
For now, the governing party says it’s working for a decisive victory.
“I can tell you that as the Secretary-General of the ANC, that from where we are there is nothing that points that the ANC will be below 50%. We are working for a decisive victory and to be way above the 50%, that’s it. But we are not in the business of arguing with polls, we believe our polls will be the results at the results centre after the 29th,” says ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula.
The ANC says its latest polls, that came in last week, have put its share of the votes at 48%.
