SOUTH AFRICA’S African National Congress (ANC) party will not consider any demands from possible coalition partners that President Cyril Ramaphosa step down, a top official said on Sunday.

This came after the ANC lost its 30-year-old majority after a stinging result in Wednesday’s election.

South Africa has now been plunged into a series of negotiations to form a national coalition government and to maintain stability.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said President Ramaphosa would remain as party leader and any demands from others that he resign for talks to go ahead was “a no-go area.”

“President Ramaphosa is the president of the ANC,” Mr Mbalula said in the leadership’s first public comments since the landmark election results.

He said: “And if you come to us with the demand that Ramaphosa is going to step down as the president, that is not going to happen.”

Mr Mbalula insisted that the ANC was open to talks with every other political party in an effort to form a government, but “no political party will dictate terms to us, the ANC. They will not. You come to us with that demand, forget it.”

The ANC received just over 40 per cent of votes, falling well short of the majority it has held for all of South Africa’s young democracy. But the ANC will still be by far the largest party in the parliament. 

Mr Mbakula acknowledged that “the results send a clear message to the ANC.”

He said: “We wish to send a message to the people of South Africa: ‘We have heard them’.”

Mr Mbakula said that the ANC was committed to forming a stable government.

The Democratic Alliance came second in the poll with 21 per cent of the vote, with the new MK Party of former president Jacob Zuma, third with 14 per cent.

Mr Zuma has said Mr Ramaphosa must go as leader of the ANC and the country before it would be willing to enter coalition talks with the ANC.