RISE Mzansi is confident that 'its people’ will send the party to Parliament. Picture: Timothy Bernard African News Agency (ANA)
As of Friday, day two after the elections, the ANC is leading in national results with 41.88%, followed by the DA (23.22%), Umkhonto weSizwe (11.52%) and the EFF (9.48%).
However, the Oppenheimer-funded Rise Mzansi is falling behind in the national results, with 0.42% at 33 675 votes.
Despite the slow increase in the national results, the party expressed its confidence in securing seats at the National Assembly. “The people of South Africa are sending RISE Mzansi to Parliament to represent them and to be their voice. It is something that we do not take lightly, it is why we signed a People’s Contract to bind public representatives and communities, where our Members of Parliament will be, among other things, accessible and accountable,” said RISE Mzansi national spokesperson, Gugu Ndima.
She alluded that the year-old party is humbled for being part of the top 10 leading parties, in spite of falling behind in the big three metros,: KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Town and Gauteng.
In Gauteng, RISE Mzansi currently has 0.88%, following the Patriotic Alliance; Cape Town is 0.43% and in KZN, the party managed to garner 0.11% of the total votes.
“Let’s wait for the final tally before we give a full assessment, but we are humbled by already being placed in the top 10 in Gauteng,” said Ndima.
RISE Mzansi received a cash injection of R15 million from Rebecca Oppenheimer, which sparked engagement on social media, and during the party’s campaign trail in various political debates.
The party’s fund declaration received a sceptical response from the public, doubting its credibility and integrity.
The Star asked Ndima whether the party’s transparency regarding funding had deterred voters. In response Ndima said: “We are a new organisation, so we cannot lose votes we never had. There are at least 500 people who have donated financially to ensure that we have organisers in communities across all nine provinces, that we have some of the most hard-working and experienced campaign managers, digital and social media teams, organisers, and communicators.”
Ironically, Ndima further noted that RISE Mzansi had limited resources and funding, hence, there were campaigning limitations and could not reach as many people as they had hoped to.
“Our presence was limited but impactful, with more financial resources we can launch an even more impressive ground operation in future elections. We call on more South Africans to support RISE Mzansi financially as we continue building this political party and movement as we head to the 2026 local geovernment elections,” said Ndima.
The Star
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