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Vol 57 No 4

Published 19th February 2016


South Africa

ANC heads for the hills

The party is leaching urban support as the polls approach and hopes to compensate for it in the countryside

Under pressure from party leaders and supporters, and from a variety of bad decisions and a stagnating economy, President Jacob Zuma appears to have abandoned formerly key African National Congress constituencies. These include the black middle class and urban youth; instead, he is focusing on the rural vote in a bid to maintain the hegemony of the governing party. The ANC's internal surveys show it is losing support in major cities in these two social groups, Africa Confidential has been told. It still has a narrow majority in the black working class but it is on the way down in towns, the surveys say.

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