Campaigning in South Africa wraps up ahead of election
South Africa election
South Africa is due to hold parliamentary and provincial elections on May 8, amid frustration with a lack of progress 25 years after Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) swept to power at the end of white minority rule.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took over from scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma as ANC leader in December 2017, is trying to restore faith in the governing party after a torrid decade under Zuma during which its image suffered.
The ANC has won every parliamentary election since 1994 but saw its share of the vote fall from a high of more than 69 per cent in 2004 to 62 per cent in 2014, as economic growth faltered and corruption scandals multiplied.
It is expected to secure another parliamentary majority this week, but analysts predict that majority could fall, despite Ramaphosa's efforts to clean up the party's image.
Ramaphosa faces South Africa's largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) headed by Mmusi Maimane - the first black African to lead the centre-right party and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) formed by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema in 2013, which has built its agenda on highlighting state graft and championing radical economic reforms such as mine nationalisation and land expropriation without compensation.
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The land is a highly emotive issue in South Africa, where the bulk of productive agricultural land has remained in white hands since the end of apartheid in 1994. A farm industry group and government argue over exactly how much land is in black hands.
That land was forcibly taken from black people during the colonial and apartheid eras.
Under pressure from the far-left EFF and more radical elements in the ANC, Ramaphosa last year launched a process to change the constitution to make explicit provision for land expropriation without compensation
The three main political parties have all put job creation at the heart of their campaigns with around 27 per cent of South Africans unemployed in the fourth quarter last year.