Healthcare On 15 May 2024, two weeks before the election, president Ramaphosa signed the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act into law, establishing a
National Health Insurance state fund to provide more South Africans access to private healthcare. The goal of the bill is to eventually phase out the use of private healthcare, replacing it with the NHI as the sole purchaser and provider of health insurance. The DA is staunchly opposed to the bill on the premise that it could lead to large tax increases and corruption by ANC "
cadre deployment," and have promised to challenge it in court. The bill has been controversial because it would limit the ability for people to take out private health insurance to cover medical costs. Additionally, the government has not released official statistics regarding how much the NHI program would cost, raising concerns it could exacerbate South Africa's ongoing troubles providing public services such as
electricity and water. Several parties such as ActionSA, IFP, ATM and PA, call for tighter border controls in response to the perceived strain caused by undocumented migrants on public services and resources. This is a widely popular stance, with the country having historically struggled with xenophobic vigilante violence (e.g.
Operation Dudula).
Corruption The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, known colloquially as the Zondo Commission, completed its work and submitted its final report to the president in June 2022. The Commission cost the South African taxpayer "almost R1 billion". Investigator Paul Holden of Shadow World Investigations read into evidence that
state capture cost the South African economy at least R49 billion. In their 2024 election manifesto, the
African National Congress claims that, as per the Zondo Commission's recommendations, "laws, institutions and practices are being put in place to reduce the potential for corruption of any sort and on any scale". The
Democratic Alliance puts the blame for corruption and state capture squarely on the shoulders of the ANC, saying that it will "establish a genuinely independent anti-crime and anti-corruption unit by dissolving the
Hawks and establishing a new
Chapter 9 institution, an Anti-Corruption Commission, which will only be accountable to the
Parliament of South Africa." The
Economic Freedom Fighters proposes to amend the
Constitution to "make the
National Prosecuting Authority a Chapter 9 institution accountable to Parliament". The ANC was also criticized for provisionally including four ministers (
Zizi Kodwa,
Malusi Gigaba,
David Mahlobo, and
Gwede Mantashe) who were implicated in a corruption investigation into the administration of former president
Jacob Zuma on 11 March, pending the final results of an intraparty review. Fourteen other officials were either disqualified or not listed as candidates by the ANC over the same issue.
Land reform The ANC's proposed amendment of section 25 of the
constitution of South Africa which failed in the
Parliament of South Africa, by a vote of 204 MPs in favour, 145 MPs against and 0 abstentions. The bill required a two-thirds majority. The constitutionality of the amendment was also questioned by civil society organisations as it attempted to implement land expropriation without compensation. The ANC maintains that expropriation without compensation is necessary, as does the EFF. The
DA, the
Freedom Front Plus, the ACDP and the IFP remain opposed to the ANC's renewed attempt at expropriation through the Expropriation Amendment Bill. Moves towards expropriation without compensation are largely framed as solutions to racial injustice. Reports from the South African government indicate that whites own 72% of total farms of agricultural holdings, while black South Africans are generally only responsible for between 5 and 10% of the country's agricultural output. The ANC sees the current policy as a continuation of Nelson Mandela's promise to return 30% of the land to black South Africans. Currently, the ANC hopes to accomplish the goal by 2030. In their election manifesto, the ANC claims that they will "accelerate land reform and redistribution to reduce asset inequality and protect security of tenure, improve food security and agricultural production, promote rural and urban development and enable greater access to housing." The EFF shares a similar stance to that of the ANC. In their manifesto, the EFF outlines seven pillars on which they are basing their policies. The first is explicitly in favor of expropriation, reading "expropriation of South Africa's land without compensation for equal redistribution in use." On the issue of expropriation, the EFF and ANC are mostly unified. Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, asserted that "when we say economic freedom, we mean Black people own productive farms." The DA opposes the policy of expropriation without compensation and sees attempts at expropriation as violating section 25 of the Constitution. Section 25 states that land may only be expropriated with compensation if the expropriation is in the public interest. The party has called attempts to pass expropriation legislation "ruinous," an "assault on our constitutional values," and "archaic."
Energy crisis Rolling blackouts, or "loadshedding", caused by problems with the state utility
Eskom have been occurring since 2007, however the prevalence of blackouts has increased substantially since 2020. There is general dissatisfaction with the ANC's handling of the blackouts, with a 2023 survey finding that 24% of voters who had previously supported the ANC were planning to switch to other parties if the issue was not resolved. The parties have taken varying stances on the issue. The ANC has pledged to create 12.5 million new jobs, a large portion of which will be devoted to a clean energy transition and modernisation of the nation's electrical system. The ANC has also linked the blackouts and energy crisis to environmental justice and climate change, claiming that its energy transition platform is also part of a larger transition to a cleaner economy. According to the ANC's election manifesto, the party pledges to "cultivate partnerships to expand domestic industries with significant potential to create sustainable jobs... such as energy." That being said, the ANC has shown historical resistance to transitioning to new energy sources (i.e. renewables). The DA largely blames the ANC for the energy crisis, saying that the state uses an "outdated" model of control and regulation. The DA intends to reduce government control over the energy sector if it is able to form a government. Using the
Western Cape as a case study, the DA says it has a successful platform for energy solutions. They argue that recent contracts to build new solar plants in the area are indicative of this. Much of their energy platform has to do with deregulation and reducing taxes on private entities. The EFF takes a
Marxist and
black nationalist approach to the issue. The party calls for the end of the privatization of Eskom, while calling for the involvement of the private sector in new electricity generation as part of efforts to shift control to the "majority of black people." Recorded attempted murder illustrated the highest increase year-on-year, with 12.3%. Prior to the election, political violence was reportedly on the rise, especially in
KwaZulu-Natal.
Action Society notes that "if the current murder trend continues, at least 31,000 people will be killed in the next 12 months...the [South African Government] has lost control..."
Housing The lack of adequate housing has been a major issue. According to a report from
Parliament, dated May 2022, the human settlements sector had a total of 3.4 million housing units built since 1994. The respective provinces and municipalities delivered a separate 1.3 million "serviced sites". A parliamentary question to the Minister of Human Settlements revealed there were 2,456,773 households registered on the National Housing Needs Register as of February 2023. In the
City of Cape Town, there were 375,150 on the municipalities' Housing Needs Register. In answer to a
Parliamentary question to the Minister of Human Settlements on 24 March 2024, she stated that her department had built 245,587 houses in the five years between January 2019 and January 2024.
Cadre deployment The ANC has practised a policy of employing people who are loyal to the ANC to positions within institutions of government. The
Zondo Commission has found that cadre deployment played a significant part in corruption and went as far as to say that it is "illegal and unconstitutional". On 12 February 2024, the
Constitutional Court ruled that the ANC had five days to hand over their cadre deployment records to the
Democratic Alliance dating back to 1 January 2013. Documents released by the DA so far contain a sworn affidavit from Thapelo Masilela, a Strategic Support Manager in the Office of the ANC Deputy Secretary General's Office which states that a laptop containing information in relation to the Deployment Committee had "crashed and...data which was stored on that hard drive had been lost". DA Leader
John Steenhuisen responded in a press briefing on 23 February 2024 saying "the missing laptops, the missing minutes, President
Cyril Ramaphosa WhatsApp's from his own personal devices are simply incongruent with the way in which the modern world works", showing that the party does not believe that the ANC has entirely complied with the order of the Constitutional Court.
Foreign policy Cyril Ramaphosa said that
South Africa v. Israel at the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) may lead to foreign interference in the general election.
The African Growth & Opportunity Act South Africa's links to Russia and China, through military co-operation and potential co-operation with Iran has placed the country in danger of losing its preferential access to the U.S. market through the
African Growth and Opportunity Act, with multiple members of the U.S. Congress raising concern with South Africa's alleged threats to U.S. interests. The Leader of the Opposition in the
Western Cape Provincial Parliament,
Cameron Dugmore (
ANC) accused the provincial government of wasting public funds, saying "this trip was about the DA's desperation to secure support for the 2024 elections by creating a certain narrative about this matter".
Cape independence The
Freedom Front Plus and the
Referendum Party contested the election with
Cape independence as part of their platform. The Referendum Party was formed in November 2023 as a single-issue political party aiming to pressure the Western Cape
Democratic Alliance government into holding a referendum on Western Cape independence as part of any potential coalition agreement. The
Cape Independence Party, which had contested in
2009 and
2019, did not make it on to the national ballot or the Western Cape provincial ballot, while the Referendum Party made it on to all three. ==Highly contested provinces==