On 29 May 2024 South Africans went to the polls and delivered a strong message to their political leaders: we’re tired of the “same old same old”.
They slashed the governing African National Congress’s share of the vote to just over 40%. And put their crosses next to a host of some old – and some new – opposition parties.
The general election outcome triggered weeks of high-wire negotiations as parties jockeyed to be part of a coalition government to run the country’s 7th administration. Now that the deals have been done, and the cabinet portfolios allocated, the country’s 400 parliamentarians are finally going to get down to business.
