(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has dismissed the notion of bringing forward national elections that are scheduled to take place around the middle of next year, according to Ace Magashule, the party’s secretary-general.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will announce a date for the vote in May next year, Magashule told reporters in Cape Town on Sunday, following a three-day meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee. “Early elections were called for by the opposition parties, but the ANC has its own time line,” he said
The NEC did consider the option of an early vote to capitalize on the positive sentiment that followed the appointment of Ramaphosa, who broached the subject, as president of the party and country, according to three people familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Ramaphosa succeeded Jacob Zuma, who was pushed out of office early this year by his own party following a string of scandals that roiled financial markets and cost the party votes in a 2016 municipal election.
The NEC decided that a national summit should be held April 21-23 to discuss the issue of seizing land with compensation, according to Magashule. It also called for more items to be exempted from -added tax, and for legislation to be fast-tracked to implement a national minimum wage, he said.
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