South Africa mining slump hurts ANC election campaign

Significance

The timing is disastrous for the ruling ANC party, which faces elections in May with its support already crumbling, in part due to its poor performance on economic issues. Major job losses in a key sector of the formal economy will also underscore the party’s persistent failure to tackle extremely high unemployment.

Impacts

• The populist Economic Freedom Fighters and newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe party will try to exploit the issue to hurt the ANC.
• The country’s economic problems will persist and further mining job losses may push unemployment levels to new record highs.
• Higher unemployment and lower revenues from the mining sector will constrain the government’s fiscal position after the elections.