Seven opposition parties in South Africa have decided to form a coalition to oust the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, which has been in power for almost 30 years, in next year's general elections.

These are the opposition parties in parliament - the Democratic Alliance (DA), the Inkatha Free Party (IFP), the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and the National Freedom Party (NFP) - which today announced a joint party convention for August 16 and 17 in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg, with the new parties Action SA, the United Independent Party (UIP) and Spectrum National (SN).

"What we're going to do is focus on the things that unite us, not the things that divide us. The parties that participate in the pact will find that the 10 or 15 things we all agree on, need to be implemented to fix South Africa," opposition leader John Steenhuisen, who chairs the AD, told the press.

For his part, Michael Beaumont, national leader of the new Action SA political grouping, quoted by Lusa, said that the initiative aims to be "an alternative force for South Africa" and to "present joint solutions to the biggest challenges facing South Africans".

These South African opposition parties believe that the next general elections in 2024 are an "unprecedented opportunity" for South Africans to elect "a new government capable of pulling the country out of the multiple crises it faces".

South Africa's third largest opposition party, the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a dissident of the ANC, is not part of the new opposition party coalition.

The historic African National Congress, Nelson Mandela's former liberation movement, is facing declining support in the face of growing discontent with its governance since 1994 fueled by high unemployment, growing inequality, crime, endemic public corruption, and a severe electricity crisis.

For the first time in the history of the country's democracy, polls predict an electoral drop below 50% for the ANC in next year's ballot, according to the local press.

The President of the Republic, Cyril Ramaphosa, was reappointed as leader of the ANC at the party's national congress in December.