ANC bets on support from Limpopo, EC, MP to carry 50 plus 1 threshold at elections
In a leaked recording, the party’s head of elections Mdumseni Ntuli can be heard giving a report back to the party’s leaders including its President Cyril Ramaphosa.
An African National Congress (ANC) flag flies outside a polling station in Langa, near Cape Town, on 1 November 2021. Picture: AFP
JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) is betting on support from Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape to carry the party over the 50 plus 1 threshold in efforts to retain power in next month’s general elections.
It wants to achieve at least 80% support in those respective provinces when the country takes to voting stations.
This was revealed in a leaked recording of a meeting by the organisation’s national executive committee that Eyewitness News has heard discussing its battle plan for the polls.
In it, the party’s head of elections Mdumseni Ntuli can be heard giving a report back to the party’s leaders including its President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ntuli says the ANC must improve its support base in the Western Cape, Free State, Northern Cape and the North West.
This comes as the party is defending its fragile hold of both Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
The leaked recording from the ANC gives insights into the party’s 40-day battle plan to remain in charge of the country.
In the recording, Ntuli makes a series of proposals including the importance of focusing on how campaigning unfolds in provinces like Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga.
"Because whatever happens anywhere else, we expect those three provinces to become a shoulder that must take the movement out of the difficulties in terms of the numbers that must go out and vote for the ANC.”
However, the ANC failed to reach 80% across any of the provinces during the 2019 polls.
In the Eastern Cape, it received 68.7% of the vote while it managed to get 70% in Mpumalanga, Limpopo was its highest performing province garnering 75% of the voter share.
The targets are based on the best-case scenario as per the ANC’s head of elections if there is a 70% turnout - meaning at least 19 million people would have voted.