The chair of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa says it can “talk to everybody and anybody”, as it looks likely to need a coalition partner after losing its parliamentary majority.
The once-dominant party of the late Nelson Mandela has seen its support slashed, receiving just over 40% in the landmark national election, with 99% of the votes counted.
The final results have not yet been formally declared by the independent electoral commission that ran the contest in the nation of 62 million people – but the ANC cannot pass 50%.
It means a flurry of negotiations are set to take place which are likely to be complicated.
Image: ANC supporters at a rally in Johannesburg. Pic: Reuters
The main opposition party, John Steenhuisen’s Democratic Alliance (DA), was on 21%, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma, got 14%, while the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by ex-ANC youth leader Julius Malema, received 9%.
In total, more than 50 parties took part in the election, many of them with tiny shares of the vote.
The ANC, which freed the country from apartheid in the early 1990s, has won every previous national election by a landslide since the historic 1994 vote that ended white minority rule.
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Why has it all gone wrong for the ANC?
But over the last decade, its support has dwindled amid widespread poverty, a stagnating economy, rising unemployment, and power and water shortages.
The official unemployment rate in South Africa is among the highest in the world at 32%.
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The poverty disproportionately affects black people, who make up 80% of the population and have been the core of the ANC’s support for years.
Image: ANC supporters dance outside a polling station during the election. Pic: Reuters
There will now be an urgent focus on coalition talks as parliament needs to elect a president within 14 days of the final election results being officially declared.
A great sense of uncertainty in South Africa
This is definitely unchartered territory for South Africa, especially for the African National Congress (ANC) which has not been this unpopular since it led the country to freedom from white minority apartheid rule in 1994.
There is still a great sense of uncertainty, as parties turn their attention to now imminent coalition talks.
This will be the first time that South Africa sees a coalition government formed in its democratic history.
So who will the ANC, which still has the largest share of the votes, choose to team up with?
One option is the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Julius Malema. He has revealed he would be willing to enter talks with the ANC, with the priority being forming a government as soon as possible.
The EFF is a very radical group economically, so there is some fear about the potentially destabilising impact of an ANC/EFF coalition, at a time when South Africa’s currency the rand is already quite vulnerable.
What is clear is that the ex-president Jacob Zuma, with his new MK party, has no intention of entering a coalition with his former ANC party.
Official results will come on Sunday after which coalition negotiations will intensify.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, of the ANC, is looking to be re-elected for a second and final term.
“We can talk to everybody and anybody,” said Gwede Mantashe, the ANC chair and current mines and energy minister, as he dodged a question from reporters about who the party was discussing a possible coalition deal with.
Image: President Cyril Ramaphosa is looking to be re-elected for a second and final term. Pic: AP
Image: ANC chair Gwede Mantashe. Pic: Reuters
Far-left leader Julius Malema, whose EFF party has got 9%, said: “We have achieved our mission… to bring the ANC below 50%. We want to humble the ANC.”
“We are going to negotiate with the ANC” for a possible coalition deal, he said, although that would not be quite enough to clinch a majority without including another party on the current count.
“The way to rescue South Africa is to break the ANC’s majority and we have done that,” said main opposition leader John Steenhuisen.
Meanwhile, MK party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela said: “We are willing to negotiate with the ANC, but not the ANC of Cyril Ramaphosa.”
Image: EFF leader Julius Malema claims he is going to negotiate with the ANC. Pic: Reuters
The strong performance of Jacob Zuma’s MK party, especially in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal, was one of the main reasons the ANC failed to secure a majority.
One option for the ANC could be a “government of national unity” involving a broad spectrum of many parties, rather than a formal coalition between a few, say analysts.
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But Mr Malema said the EFF was against that idea and preferred to be part of a coalition.
Nearly 28 million South Africans were registered to vote and turnout is expected to be around 60%, according to figures from the independent electoral commission.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Image: Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
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They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Yemen’s Houthi rebel group has said 15 people have been injured in “US-British” airstrikes in and around the capital Sanaa.
Most of those hurt were from the Shuub district, near the centre of the city, a statement from the health ministry said.
Another person was injured on the main airport road, the statement added.
It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” following a missile attack by the group on Israel’s main international airport on Sunday morning.
It remains unclear whether the UK took part in the latest strikes and any role it may have played.
On 29 April, UK forces, the British government said, took part in a joint strike on “a Houthi military target in Yemen”.
“Careful intelligence analysis identified a cluster of buildings, used by the Houthis to manufacture drones of the type used to attack ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, located some fifteen miles south of Sanaa,” the British Ministry of Defence said in a previous statement.
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On Sunday, the militant group fired a missile at the Ben Gurion Airport, sparking panic among passengers in the terminal building.
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly caused flights to be halted.
Four people were said to be injured, according to the country’s paramedic service.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Image: Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
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Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.