Boosted by Gaza war, Al Jama-ah party open to deal with ANC

Al Jama-ah is gaining support due to the conflict in Gaza and sees itself as a potential coalition partner for the ANC after next week’s vote, its leader said Wednesday.

Solidarity with Palestinians is a popular position in SA, where many people liken their treatment by Israel to the plight of black South Africans during apartheid — a comparison strongly rejected by Israel.

SA has also taken Israel to the International Court of Justice on accusations of genocide, which Israel denies.

Polls suggest the ANC could lose its parliamentary majority for the first time in the election on May 29, forcing it into coalition with one or more parties to stay in power. “The ANC can count on us,” Ganief Hendricks, Al Jama-ah’s leader and sole MP, told Reuters.

South Africans will elect a 400-member parliament, which will then elect the president by majority vote. If the ANC gets close to 50% of votes, which would translate into 50% of parliamentary seats, analysts say it likely enlist a few small opposition parties to keep President Cyril Ramaphosa in power.

Hendricks said the ANC had already approached Al Jama-ah for support, though the ANC says publicly it expects to win the election outright and is not planning to form a coalition.

“The ANC came to see me and told me ‘Look ... we are five seats short in terms of our number-crunching, and we’re going to approach you for those five seats’,” he said.

The ANC declined to comment beyond referring to its previous public statements.

Recent polling has put the ANC at about 45%, meaning it would be 20 seats short of a majority. Al Jama-ah is too small to be included in national opinion polls, but Hendricks said it aimed to get 10 seats, or about 2.5% of the national vote.

Al Jama-ah is already in a coalition with the ANC and the EFF in Johannesburg, where mayor Kabelo Gwamanda is a member of Al Jama-ah.

Reuters