With the final 2024 election results due to be released today, the spotlight will shift to parliament, which must be convened in the next two weeks by chief justice Raymond Zondo to swear in new MPs, elect the speaker and the president.
The highly anticipated first sitting of the seventh parliament is due to take place on June 18, if the post-electoral programme of parliament remains unchanged.
And it will be a sitting in which many new faces will be making their first entrance in the National Assembly, with former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party set to arrive in Cape Town with an army of at least 58 new lawmakers after amassing more than 2-million votes and emerging as the third biggest party in its debut election.
Among the leaders high up on MK’s list is Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile Zuma, who at No 18 is certain to be a party MP.
Controversial MK Party figure Visvin Reddy, who recently threatened violence if his party did not get a two-thirds majority, is in ninth place and also in line to make it to the MK front benches.
Also high up on the MK list is former finance minister Des van Rooyen, at No 12, as well as former EFF MP Sipho Mbatha at 14.
The MK Party’s debut performance far surpasses those of the other previous ANC splinter parties such as COPE, which received about 1.3-million votes in 2009 (30 seats) and the EFF, which got more than 1.1-million votes (25 seats) in 2014.
Another new political outfit in parliament will be Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance, which has secured at least nine seats after amassing about 300,000 votes, or just over 2%. Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA is another new arrival with five seats, after it received more than 182,000 votes.
Mashaba said his party was disappointed that it had not won more votes but was proud of its showing. He said the party would use the platform to push for several reforms, some in the criminal justice cluster.
It remains to be seen if Mashaba will take up his seat in parliament as he is No 1 on the party’s list, followed by former DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip and Dr Kgosi Letlape at No 3.
New entrants will also come from Songezo Zibi’s Rise Mzansi and Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa, after they secured two seats apiece.
Maimane is top of Bosa’s list, followed by his deputy Nobuntu Webster.
Similarly, Zibi occupies the first spot on Rise’s list, followed by his deputy Vuyiswa Ramokgopa.
While some politicians may be looking forward to political careers in Cape Town, this week marked the end of an era for some of the old guard, such as COPE veterans Mosiuoa Lekota and Teboho Loate, following their party’s poor performance.”
The Matatiele-based African Independent Congress will no longer have representation in parliament, and the National Freedom Party has also fallen by the wayside.
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