Monday Briefing: What’s Next for South Africa

The African National Congress received less than 50 percent of the national vote for the first time since gaining power. Credit…Paul Botes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

South Africans reject the A.N.C.

The African National Congress has lost its political monopoly on South Africa. Election results on Saturday showed that the party had fallen short of winning an absolute majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The A.N.C. received about 40 percent of the vote, which was the largest share but a dramatic drop from the nearly 58 percent it received in the last election, in 2019. It has cost the A.N.C. — which rose to international acclaim on the shoulders of Nelson Mandela — its majority in Parliament, which elects the president, and it has two weeks to cobble together a government and elect a president.

Rival parties, however, have derided the A.N.C. as corrupt and have vowed never to form an alliance with it. A big question is whether the A.N.C. would ally with Jacob Zuma, its former leader, who resigned as president in 2018 because of corruption allegations. A new party that he helped start just six months ago won almost 15 percent of the vote.

The Democratic Alliance drew the second-largest share, nearly 22 percent. It is a potential ally for the A.N.C., but some A.N.C. members have accused the Democratic Alliance of promoting policies that would essentially take the country back to apartheid. Here’s what might happen next.

Voter frustrations: South Africans face one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, shortages of electricity and water and rampant crime. Many see the A.N.C. as something of a relic. “Maybe they had a plan to fight apartheid, but not a plan for the economy,” one voter said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa: The A.N.C.’s leader will have to pull together his highly factionalized party to form a coalition. Some may blame him for the devastating defeat, and seek new party leadership.