Ramaphosa used the occasion to list improvements shepherded by the ANC, which is struggling in the polls due on May 29 and risks losing its outright parliamentary majority for the first time.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday hailed South Africa’s achievements under his party’s leadership as the country celebrated 30 years of democracy a month before its most consequential election in decades.

South Africans will head to the polls on May 29, three decades after the first democratic election in 1994 ended white rule, bringing Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) party to power.

“South Africa’s democracy is young. What we’ve achieved in these short 30 years is something of which all of us should be proud. This is an infinitely better place than it was 30 years ago,” Ramaphosa said Saturday in a speech marking “Freedom Day” at the Union Buildings, the seat of government, in Pretoria.

The ANC has been in government since 1994 and is still recognised for its role in freeing South Africans, but for some, it is no longer celebrated in the same way as poverty and economic inequality remain rife.

Ramaphosa used the occasion to list improvements shepherded by the ANC, which is struggling in the polls and risks losing its outright parliamentary majority for the first time.

“We have pursued land reform, distributing millions of hectares of land to those who had been forcibly dispossessed,” the 71-year-old South African leader said.

“We have built houses, clinics, hospitals, roads, and constructed bridges, dams, and many other facilities. We have brought electricity, water, and sanitation to millions of South African homes.”

An Ipsos poll released on Friday showed support for the ruling party, which won more than 57% of the vote at the last national elections in 2019, has fallen to just more than 40%

Were it to win less than 50%, the ANC would be forced to find coalition partners to remain in power.

The party’s image has been badly hurt by accusations of corruption and its inability to effectively tackle poverty, crime, inequality, and unemployment, which remain staggeringly high.

Ramaphosa acknowledged the problems, but denounced critics as people who wilfully “shut their eyes”.

“We have made much progress and we are determined to do much more,” he said.

About two-thirds of respondents to the Ipsos poll said South Africa was moving in the wrong direction.

“They promised us dreams, but they delivered only nightmares,” John Steenhuisen, the head of the leading opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), said in a rival address in the battleground province of KwaZulu-Natal.

“True freedom is only possible when you have a job to meet the needs of your family and to build a better future.”