The ANC committed to hitting the ground running after the cheers and all-night celebrations to immortalise its sixth national general election victory.
There is seemingly business to resume and continue in its term of office. Other political parties hoping to capitalise on the massive money scandals and governance blunders of the ANC seemingly fell flat in their endeavour to dislodge them with veteran politician and Robben Islander Terror Lekota sobbing as his stakes plummeted to an all-time low and likely to herald his end. Social media exposed the sorry incident of him tucked somewhere and his trusted lieutenants consoling him from either side with hand hugs as he wept, faced down and shook his head presumably in disbelief about the results which showed the ANC tromping to the throne once again.
The results, which gave them 230 of the 400 parliamentary seats against the remainder shared by 13 other parties, also may have sealed the exit door to veteran-serial parliamentary committee chair and APC leader Temba Godi who may have to seek other career alternatives. His one-man campaigns saw him frequent Alex and other poor communities with lukewarm messages of comfort with the hope that the parliamentary chair still awaited his return. His misfortunes happened as upstart parties joined the more seasoned parties en route to parliament.
Lessons should be learnt from this development of splinter organisations. Cope, which broke away from the ANC and was once a formidable foe, now has only two seats, similar with the ADM whose fortunes also plummeted to two seats. The IFP has declined to 14 seats while the UDM will now have to cut a forlorn site with two seats.
Most dis-consenting are the declines of liberation movement with the PAC, attaining one seat and AZAPO which has all but moved from intensive care into the mortuary. It’s sad for their impeccable credentials and brand names to suffer this public rejection when the nation needs guidance from their illustrious struggle work. Their memory will now to be left to the history books hopefully to be included in the school curriculum. Their loss was a glorious gain for issue-based minute parties, far removed from values, ethics and principle-based, broad-multi pronged social and economic challenges of society among others, poverty alleviation, promotion of rights and equality before the law.
The overall parliamentary seat results are:
- African National Congress: 230
- Democratic Alliance: 84
- Economic Freedom Front: 44
- Inkatha Freedom Party: 14
- Freedom Front Plus: 10
- African Christian Democratic Party: 4
- Congress of the People: 2
- United Democratic Movement: 2
- African Independent Congress: 2
- African Transformation Movement: 2
- Good: 2
- National Freedom Party: 2
- Pan African Congress: 1
- Aljama: 1.
The results for Gauteng provincial legislature are:
- African National Congress: 37
- Democratic Alliance: 20
- Economic Freedom Front: 11
- Freedom Front Plus: 3
- Inkatha Freedom Party: 1
- African Christian Democratic Party: 1.
