ANC

The ANC (African National Congress) is South Africa's governing political party and a liberation movement that has dominated the country's politics since the end of apartheid in 1994. Founded in 1912, it is one of the oldest political organisations on the African continent. The party led the struggle against apartheid under leaders including Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu, and was unbanned in 1990 after decades of prohibition. The ANC won South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994 with Mandela as president, and has retained national government control in every subsequent election, though with declining majorities. The party's ideology is rooted in the Freedom Charter adopted in 1955, which calls for a nonracial, democratic South Africa with nationalisation of key industries, though economic policy has evolved significantly since 1994. The ANC is structured as a broad church that includes internal factions ranging from pro-business moderates to leftist elements aligned with the South African Communist Party and trade union federation Cosatu, which together form the Tripartite Alliance. In recent years the party has faced declining electoral support, internal divisions, and sustained criticism over corruption, service delivery failures and high unemployment. In the 2024 national elections, the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time, securing just over 40% of the vote and entering into a Government of National Unity with the DA and other parties. The party's headquarters are at Luthuli House in Johannesburg, and it publishes the journal ANC Today.