get worse as winter bites. south africa s opposition parties sense an opportunity. polls show anc support falling below 50%. when you said not so long ago, there is a changing of the guard coming in south africa. the anc s decline is terminal. it s just a matter of how fast, did you really believe that? of course i believed it and i think it s a fair assessment about where the anc find themselves. in the last local government elections in 2021, for the first time in post democratic south africa they lost their majority and fell below 50%. this obviously allied with the fact that our economy is not growing. we ve got 30 million people living in poverty, 12 million people unemployed, and load shedding, rolling blackouts which have reached into every home and switched off the lights, switched off our factories and switched off our economy. south africans are realising that
the anc has been damaged by economic stagnation, a protracted energy crisis and massive inequality. my guest today is the leader of the biggest opposition party, the democratic alliance, john steenhuisen. could he become south africa s first white leader since apartheid? john steenhuisen, welcome to hardtalk. great to be with you, stephen. well, it s great to be here in cape town. let s start with a very simple question. when you said not so long ago, there is a changing of the guard coming in south africa, the anc s decline is terminal.
of the guard coming in south africa, the anc s decline is terminal. it s just a matter of how fast, did you really believe that? of course i believed it then. i think it s a fair assessment about where the anc find themselves in the last local government elections, in 2021, they, for the first time in post democratic south africa, lost their majority and fell below 50%. this obviously allied with the fact that our economy s not growing, we ve got 30 million people living in poverty, 12 million people unemployed, and loadshedding, rolling blackouts, which have reached into every home and switched off the lights, switched off our factories, and switched off our economy. south africans are realising that if they don t change the way they vote, south africa is going to end up in a very, very dark place, and it s going to be poverty and inequality deepening. well, in that bleak context that you ve just outlined, with the unemployment, what they call here loadshedding , the rolling power
centre has consequently classified the energy crisis and its impact as a disaster. he declared a state of national disaster as load shedding worsened, but eskom still reckons outages may get worse as winter bites. south africa s opposition parties sense an opportunity. polls show anc support falling below 50%. when you said not so long ago, there is a changing of the guard coming in south africa. the anc s decline is terminal. it s just a matter of how fast, did you really believe that? of course i believed it and i think it s a fair assessment about where the anc find themselves. in the last local government elections in 2021, for the first time in post democratic south africa, they lost their majority and fell below 50%.
parties sense an opportunity. polls show anc support falling below 50%. when you said not so long ago there is a changing of the guard coming in south africa, the anc s decline is terminal, it s just a matter of how fast. did you really believe that? of course i believed it. and i think it s a fair assessment about where the anc find themselves in the last local government elections in 2021, they, for the first time in post democratic south africa, lost their majority and fell below 50%. this obviously allied with the fact that our economy is not growing. we ve got 30 million people living in poverty, 12 million people unemployed, and loadshedding rolling blackouts which have reached into every home and switched off the lights, switched off our factories and switched off our economy. south africans are realising that if they don t change the way they vote, south africa is going to end up in a very, very dark place.