Cape Talk, Thursday afternoon

That was about to become a governing party. How do you interpret its decline? You know, it's probably in a certain way not that strange. You know, in many cases, liberation movements or parties have gone through exactly the same unfolding of developments. The example that always comes to my mind.

Is the Congress Party in India, you know, that was the liberation movement there. And it continued to run the country for an extended period of time of probably close to 40 years or so. And then it lost power. And, you know, it's not totally dissimilar as what is happening here. But the other facet is, and I was saying that to my ANC friends over a period of time already: that you know, if you don't reform and adjust.

To what the voters want, it's difficult to stay in power. I mean, the reality is, the vast majority of South Africans who probably now vote have not been part of the anti-apartheid struggle. And, you know, in their memory or in their daily experience, it's something else that they are challenged with today. And the question for them is: is the ANC actually meeting what they aspire or?

expect. And that is maybe telling part of the change of voter patterns in the last two elections, in particular national in 2024 and now in the local elections. And the outcome I think indicates very strongly that we will most likely never see a one party rule again, a single party rule again, at least not for a long time.

So, coalition governments at different levels, national, provincial, as well as local, are going to be, you know, coalition governments or coalition formations are going to feature, which is again not that strange if you compare it with what is happening in other democracies. The one good thing for me is that we have a strong democracy and it holds, you know. And the fact that voters have the right and opportunity to exercise that vote.