(24 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pretoria, South Africa – 16 May 2024
1. Wide election posters
2. Mid of poster of independent candidate Anele Mda
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pretoria – 23 May 2024
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Anele Mda, independent candidate:
++SOUNDBITE PARTLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 4 and 5 ++
"I will be having no permanent friends that I am aligned to. I will be building no permanent collaborations with anyone. I will finish my term as a standalone, independent Member of Parliament who is serving people of South Africa and directly accountable to them.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pretoria – 16 May 2024
4. Wide of election posters
5. Tilt-up of election posters
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pretoria – 23 May 2024
6. Wide of Mda being interviewed
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Anele Mda, independent candidate:
++SOUNDBITE PARTLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 8 and 9 ++
"There is literally no South African who needs to be convinced why we need to change. There isn’t, not one. A person who’s voting the ANC (African National Congress), it’s a person who is an accomplice, who has taken a stand of declaring themselves an accomplice to the rot that is happening. Because they can see the rot."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pretoria – 24 February 2024
8. Wide of the African National Congress (ANC) during their manifesto launch
9. Wide ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa addressing supporters
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pretoria – 23 May 2024
10. Wide Mda chatting with reporter at the end of the interview
STORYLINE:
An outspoken former activist and member of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress will be among at least 10 independent candidates seeking to become lawmakers for the first time in the country’s history.
South Africa is allowing independent candidates to take part for the first time in the country’s national elections next week, following a landmark ruling delivered by the highest court last year.
Anele Mda was among members of the ANC who broke away from the party in 2008 to form the Congress of the People which contested elections the following year.
They secured over 7% of the national vote, becoming the second biggest opposition party in Parliament.
However, political infighting within the party saw it gradually lose support and parliamentary seats from 30 in 2009 to only two in the elections in 2019.
Speaking to The Associated Press ahead of what’s expected to be a highly contested election on May 29, Mda said she had given up on political parties to deliver any meaningful change in the country.
As she criss-crosses the country to convince as many South Africans as possible to vote for her, Mda highlighted corruption in government and state-owned companies as priorities lawmakers need to tackle.
A landmark court ruling delivered in December reduced the number of signatures required for independent candidates to participate in the election from over 11,000 to just 1,000 signatures.
That has significantly reduced the high barrier for independents to contest elections, and the move has been widely lauded as a step towards deepening South Africa’s democracy.
Just over 27 million of a total population of 62 million are registered to vote in the country’s seventh fully democratic national election since 1994.
The ruling ANC, which has been in power since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago, is expected to lose much of its support as many disillusioned voters turn to an array of opposition parties.
Seventy parties — the most ever — and 10 independent candidates are registered to contest the 400 seats in the country’s parliament.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/a54f94837e474487824ef611cb74e80f
