South African business, which a few months ago was preparing for the possible heavy defeat of the ruling African National Congress, now appears more confident of an election result in which the ANC drops below 50 per cent but avoids a coalition with more radical parties.
Opinion polls, though unreliable, suggest that support for the ANC may have crept up to about 45 per cent as its party machinery cranks into action ahead of the general election on Wednesday. The same polls put the nearest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, in the low 20s.
That would allow the ANC, which has run South Africa since 1994, to cobble together a coalition without doing a deal with Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters, which is pushing for widespread nationalisation, or the new leftist party headed by former president Jacob Zuma.