South Africa's ruling party African National Congress (ANC) will win an outright majority in 2024 elections and not need to govern in a coalition, the country's President Cyril Ramaphosa said Saturday, despite struggling in opinion polls.
"The ANC is going to achieve an outright majority... We are confident we are going to emerge victorious," said the president of ANC.
In response to the question about the type of parties with which the ANC could ally itself to stay in power, the president smiled.
"We are not working to be in a coalition," he replied, on the eve of a meeting planned in a stadium in Soweto, a township on the southern fringes of the South African city of Johannesburg, to launch his campaign.
Moreover, Ramaphosa noted that the majority of ANC supporters still see the party as "the only vehicle for the transformation process in the country," adding "many people don't see anyone doing better."
The ANC will be supported on the ground by the largest trade union federation in the country, the powerful Cosatu, and the Communist Party (SACP), he stressed.
During the last campaign in 2019, the ANC prioritized economic and social transformation, the fight against corruption, crime, and the progress made since apartheid.
"We have a vastly different country," the leader said, but emphasized that "the shadow of apartheid has continued to cast a shadow on everything we have sought to do".
Under apartheid, 36% of South Africans had access to electricity and now this figure was close to 93%, he highlighted.
"It is a great achievement, but there it still a lot to do," the president noted.
Ramaphosa acknowledged many voters are "bitterly critical of (the) ANC," underlying that "renewal is not a one-day event."