Mzansi, we did it! We survived the 2024 elections, and despite long queues and technical difficulties, we’re on the other side of the river. We’ve done our part, and now, the politicians are in talks to form the next South African parliament.
But before the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) declared the elections free and fair, there was plenty of drama behind the scenes. Let’s take a look at some of it.
🔹 Panic set in on Friday morning after the elections dashboard system crashed for almost two hours. The dashboard displayed the national election results at the Results Operating Centre (ROC) in Midrand, Johannesburg. Naturally, conspiracy theories around this outage soon filled social media, with some accusing the IEC of “cooking” the results. The Economic Freedom Fighters said the outage was a result of the “incompetence and inability of the IEC to safeguard our democracy.” The uMkhonto We Sizwe Party, which impressed many with its performance, said the outage and other “anomalies” raised questions about the integrity of the electoral process. “It is profoundly troubling that the IEC, despite its substantial budget and pivotal role, apparently lacks robust backup systems and adequate business continuity plans at such a crucial time,” said the party.
🔹 Ace Magashule haunted the halls of the ROC, claiming that the election had been rigged. To be fair to Ace, the leader of the African Congress for Transformation (ACT), he wasn’t the only one who complained about alleged vote rigging. Several parties accused the IEC of vote-rigging and have called for a recount. MK Party president, Jacob Zuma, said the IEC should not declare the results before the party’s complaints and calls for a recount had been resolved. “We have a bigger right than anybody else to demand that, it is us who are citizens. Institutions can’t say: ‘We can’t listen to you and let us rush rush’ because that is provoking people in reality,” Zuma said. And now, because of these thinly veiled threats, KwaZulu Natal police are on high alert to prevent civil unrest like those seen in July 2021.
🔹 President Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed the outcome of the elections. Ramaphosa said South Africans had “spoken” in his speech at the results announcement. He urged political parties to follow the will of the people. “Our people expect all parties to work together within the framework of our constitution and address whatever challenges we encounter peacefully and in accordance with the prescripts of our constitution and the rule of law.
Each party emerges from this election with a mandate based on the commitments they each made to the electorate,” said Ramaphosa.
His party, the African National Congress, lost its majority in parliament and received only 40% of the vote in the 2024 elections, a decline from 57.5% in the 2019 elections. This means that they will have to form a coalition government.
He thanked the IEC for their work to ensure smooth polls and paid tribute to the South African Police Service and South African Defence Force for ensuring peace and stability during the elections. Even Home Affairs staff got a shout-out from the president for ensuring that as many voters as possible had their identity documents on election day.
So what now? It’s set to be a bumpy couple of days as political parties try to form coalitions. The MK Party is still calling for a recount, and the DA has announced a negotiating team composed of Helen Zille, Ivan Meyer, Siviwe Gwarube, Alan Winde, Tony Leon and Ryan Coetzee to facilitate the engagement with other parties. The ANC has said it isn’t interested in negotiating with anyone who would want its current president, Ramaphosa, to resign. It’s going to be an interesting two weeks. Brace yourselves.
