Black Middle Class Will Stick With ANC, Says Ramaphosa

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 9 - African National Congress (ANC) Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected predictions that the black middle class will abandon their support for the ruling party in South Africa's forthcoming elections.

Political analysts have cited corruption, inflation, youth unemployment and imposition of tolls on some highways as factors which may alienate the black middle class from the ruling party but Ramaphosa says he is convinced that the party will triumph in urban areas.

Ramaphosa said Wednesday that the ANC was "not worried." He added: "Our support is solid and membership is growing. Even in the urban areas, people still love the ANC and we are not concerned about all the talk that we are going to be declining in urban areas."

According to Ramaphosa, people have a deep love affair with the ANC. He said that for 20 years since the end of apartheid, the party had been learning, had stumbled but kept going.

President Jacob Zuma, who is also the ANC president, has meanwhile vowed that the ANC will rule South Africa forever.

Speaking during a door-to-door campaign in Nelspruit, in Mpumalanga Province, where the party will on Friday launch its election manifesto, Zuma scoffed at suggestions that support for the ANC was waning, saying the party will hammer the opposition.

Earlier, residents of Kanyamazane township, outside Nelspruit, told President Zuma that they would work with the ANC in their community to improve their living conditions. The president was in the area as part of the ruling party's mobilisation campaign to mark its 102 years of existence.

Zuma inter-acted with people at a local shopping complex and conducted a door-to-door campaign. Addressing ANC supporters in the area, the President predicted a decisive victory for the ANC in forthcoming general elections.

BERNAMA-NNN-SABC