General elections were held in South Africa on 7 May 2014, to elect a new National Assembly and new provincial legislatures in each province. It was the fifth election held in South Africa under conditions of universal adult suffrage since the end of the apartheid era in 1994, and also the first held since the death of Nelson Mandela. It was also the first time that South African expatriates were allowed to vote in a South African national election.
The National Assembly election was won by the African National Congress (ANC), but with a reduced majority of 62.1%, down from 65.9% in the 2009 election. The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) increased its share of the vote from 16.7% to 22.2%, while the newly formed Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) obtained 6.4% of the vote.
Eight of the nine provincial legislatures were won by the ANC. The EFF obtained over 10% of the vote in Gauteng, Limpopo and North West, and beat the DA to second place in the last two. In the other six provinces won by the ANC, the DA obtained second place. This included KwaZulu-Natal, where the DA for the first time beat the Inkatha Freedom Party to second place. In the Western Cape, the only province not won by the ANC, the DA increased its majority from 51.5% to 59.4%.
Electoral system South Africa has a parliamentary system of government; the National Assembly consists of 400 members elected by proportional representation with a closed list approach. Two hundred members are elected from national party lists; the other 200 are elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces. The President of South Africa was chosen by the National Assembly after the election.
The provincial legislatures, which vary in size from 30 to 80 members, are also elected by proportional representation with closed lists. The premiers of each province will be chosen by the winning majority in each provincial legislature.
The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) consists of 90 members, ten elected by each provincial legislature. The NCOP members will be elected by the provincial legislatures in proportion to the party makeup of the legislatures.
Changes to electoral legislation On 26 November 2013 the Electoral Amendment Act, 2013, came into force. It allows South African citizens resident outside South Africa to register and vote in the election of the National Assembly.
A new regulation added in 2013 that was enforced for the first time on 7 May 2014 is the prohibition of photographing marked ballot papers, which aims to inhibit voter intimidation.
Political parties
The governing African National Congress (ANC), supported by its Tripartite Alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), have held a majority of the seats in the National Assembly since 1994. They were re-elected with increasing majorities in 1999 and 2004, and with a slight fall in its majority from 69% to 65.9% in 2009. The ANC is led by Jacob Zuma. In 2012, Zuma was re-elected to a second five-year term as President of the African National Congress, beating his only rival and deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, by a wide margin. Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as Deputy President of the ANC, succeeding Motlanthe who had declined a second term after losing to Zuma.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) received 16.7% of the vote in 2009, up from 12.4% in 2004. The DA is led by Helen Zille, who was re-elected unopposed as Leader of the Democratic Alliance at the party's Federal Congress in Gauteng in 2012, while Lindiwe Mazibuko continued as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. At provincial level, the DA has been in power in the Western Cape province since 2009, and came to power in several Western Cape municipalities in the 2011 municipal election. Traditionally, the DA was seen as a party rallying against apartheid laws, especially in the 1980s. However, one of its larger following bases are the whites in the south, especially after it absorbed the New National Party in 2001 (although NNP was disbanded in 2004).
Congress of the People (COPE), is led by Mosiuoa Lekota, although the leadership is disputed by Mbhazima Shilowa who continues to battle for recognition in the High Court. The party has been riven by infighting, causing it to lose much of its support and resulting in the formation of a splinter group, the United Congress. COPE won three seats in the National Assembly in the 2014 elections.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi remains leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) despite a challenge by former IFP chairperson Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi, who formed the National Freedom Party (NFP) after her feud with Buthelezi. The NFP and IFP split the vote in the Zulu-dominated KwaZulu-Natal province in the previous local government elections, each getting an even share of the vote, while the ANC continued to dominate the former IFP stronghold.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) announced on 17 March that a record number of 33 parties had registered candidates for the national parliamentary election. In the provincial legislature elections the number of parties registering candidates, including four parties which had not yet paid the required deposits subject to a 24 March deadline, were: Western Cape – 26 Gauteng – 22 Limpopo – 20 Eastern Cape – 18 KwaZulu-Natal – 18 Free State – 17 Mpumalanga – 16 Northern Cape – 16 North West – 16
The electoral code of conduct was signed in Midrand, Gauteng on 19 March 2014. At the signing event, a draw was held in which the Freedom Front Plus won the right to appear at the top of the ballot paper.
New parties Several parties contested the election for the first time and gained seats nationally and provincially:
Expelled former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema launched the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), taking a strong anti-ANC position within its ultra-left economic platform, such as calling for the expropriation of land without compensation and the nationalisation of South Africa's mines and the South African Reserve Bank. EFF won 25 seats in the assembly in the 2014 elections, taking the lead over older parties including COPE, FF+, and UDM. The National Freedom Party (NFP) was formed by former IFP chairperson Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi. The African Independent Congress contested the election nationally for the first time. Agang South Africa was formed by anti-apartheid movement leader Mamphela Ramphele in 2013.
Other new parties were formed but did not obtain seats nationally:
The Ubuntu Party is a South African political party founded by Michael Tellinger based on his principles of Ubuntu Contributionism. The party aims to introduce 100% employment by closing down the South African Reserve Bank and replacing it with a People's Bank that will grant interest-free home loans, fund massive public works campaign, and provide free electricity as Eskom is owned by the people of South Africa. The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) was launched on Human Rights Day 2013 by leaders of the independent mineworkers' strike committees that led the strikes in the mining industry in 2012, before and after the Marikana massacre, and the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM). As a result of the infighting in COPE, the United Congress splinter group was formed, led by Mluleki George. The new right-wing Front National (FN) party formed in December 2013 promotes separatism and Afrikaner self-determination. Hannes Engelbrecht is their leader and Dan Roodt is their deputy leader and spokesperson. The Patriotic Alliance was formed in 2013 by South African businessman, Kenny Kunene, and Kunene's former jail-mate, Gayton Mckenzie.
Alliances and defections The Independent Democrats party, which won four seats and 0.9% of the national vote in 2009, merged with the Democratic Alliance before the 2014 general election.
On 17 December 2013, the South African Press Association reported that five opposition parties, namely COPE, the IFP, the African Christian Democratic Party, the United Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Front Plus, had formed a coalition with 20 specific priorities. The parties in the coalition, named the Collective for Democracy (CD) and chaired by COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota, will retain their own identity and contest the election individually. The IFP denied being part of the coalition, saying they were wary of forming such alliances given the confusion it had caused for their supporters in previous elections. Three days later, the 20th, COSATU's largest affiliate National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) announced that they would not endorse the ANC or any other political party in 2014. NUMSA planned to establish a new working class collective along the lines of the defunct United Democratic Front, with the ultimate goal of forming a socialist party that will contest the 2019 general election. An opposing COSATU faction has obtained a legal opinion on removing NUMSA from COSATU, with significant implications for the country's labour and political landscape.
On 28 January 2014, the DA announced that Mamphela Ramphele had accepted an invitation to stand as its presidential candidate in the 2014 general election, and the DA and Agang South Africa were set to merge. On the 31st, Ramphele stated that she would not take up DA party membership and would remain the leader of Agang South Africa, resulting in confusion. On 2 February, Helen Zille stated that Ramphele had reneged on her agreement to stand as the DA's presidential candidate. Ramphele subsequently apologised for the reversal of her decision, saying that the timing was not right as the reaction to it had shown people were unable to overcome race-based party politics.
On 6 February, it was reported that COPE members who support Mbhazima Shilowa's planned to join the United Democratic Movement led by Bantu Holomisa which won four seats in the 2009 election. On 10 March, it was reported that COPE MP Nqaba Bhanga had joined the DA as an Eastern Cape parliamentary candidate, and three COPE MPs, namely Julie Kilian, Leonard Ramatlakane and Nic Koornhof were included on the ANC's list of national parliamentary candidates published on 11 March. On 28 April, it was reported that over 20 COPE MPs had defected to the ANC citing "poor political leadership". The 19 listed in this article exclude Smuts Ngonyama and Thozamile Botha. The only COPE member in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, Lucky Gabela, subsequently also defected to the ANC citing internal conflict.
On 11 March, Al Jama-ah and the Africa Muslim Party announced they would campaign together under the Al Jama-ah Community Party banner. The next day, it was reported that DA MP Beverley Abrahams had joined the ANC. On the 17th, Economic Freedom Fighters announced agreement to establish working relations with the Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA) and Black Consciousness Party (BCP), who would not independently stand for elections, but their candidates would be part of the EFF election 2014 candidates list as EFF members. EFF also had members of South Africa First (SAF) in the list who hold dual membership. Although SAF had not agreed to them being on the EFF list, its leadership collective endorsed the lists.
On the 20th, it was reported that DA MPs Lourie Bosman, Niekie van den Berg and Theo Coetzee were joining Freedom Front Plus on the party's national candidates list for the 2014 election. On the 30th, it was reported in the Sunday Times that DA MP Mpowele Swathe had joined the United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP) after his name appeared on election candidate lists for both parties.
Endorsements