Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia – 2016-06-24

The current ongoing service delivery and other protests sums up the current mood of South Africans and the political landscape.

Sporadic violence engulfing different parts of the country namely; Tshwane, Polokwane, KZN in recent weeks have caused mayhem and even loss of life.

With South Africa nearing local government elections, due to be held in August, the African National Congress (ANC) is under no illusion that it faces its most difficult challenge yet to hold on to power.

An informed source within the ANC says that there are concerns within the party and they are aware of the winter of discontent among South Africans.

Analysts have attributed this to a number of factors including the infighting, the release of party lists, continuous scandals amongst party members with the Nkandla debacle, Pravin Gordhan Hawks Sars probe, the spy tapes saga and economic woes including unemployment and the crippling drought.

Also, the ruling party’s concern is that they’ve lost the legislative capital (Cape Town) and it would be highly embarrassing should they lose the administrative capital (Pretoria) to opposition parties.

The first eNCA/Ipsos poll results show that the number of people who say they will vote for the ANC in the upcoming municipal elections has decreased dramatically from the 2014 national general elections.

In the poll, conducted on 6 and 7 June, 42 percent of respondents indicated they voted for the ANC in the 2014 national elections but only 31 percent said they would vote for the party in the upcoming elections, indicating a large drop in support.

The question all analysts are asking is… where to from here?

Twitter: @thedabhelia