But the IFP, which mostly appeals to Zulus, had nearly 5 percent of the national vote with most of the tally completed compared to 3.6 percent in the last local elections in 2011.
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The elections are seen as a a major test for the ruling party African National Congress (ANC), which has been in power since South Africa ended apartheid rule in 1994.
The ruling party has already lost Cape Town to the opposition DA party in previous elections, and its power base is increasingly centred in rural and small-town regions and in the Zulu heartland where Mr. Zuma is admired for his Zulu traditionalism.
Numerous political killings this year have not been in such contested areas, instead occurring in the traditional ANC stronghold of KwaZulu-Natal, which has a history of political violence.
The Nobel peace laureate and his wife, Leah, cast his votes at Milnerton High School.
“It is showing gratitude for people who didn’t have that before me”, Spani said. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a Socialist party, has 7.58 percent of votes but no councils. “It’s just something different”, Mr. Khumalo added.
She says it’s one thing to fill a stadium in Soweto, but quite another to change voters’ minds when they face the ballot.
February said a close result could open a period of “tricky and messy” coalition building.
Polls show the ANC may lose three key cities in Wednesday’s poll – Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.
The election will also be a proving ground for Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters.
The ANC chief whip in Parliament, Jackson Mthembu, said the election results thus far were not a true reflection of how the overall picture would look when counting was finally completed. A woman, left, votes during municipal elections in Khayelitsha township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016.
Still, many voters remain loyal to the party of Mr. Mandela. “I am looking forward to the results as they keep trickling in”.
Should the ANC lose big on Wednesday, we could be witnessing the start of a trend that will reverberate all the way to general elections in 2019.
Lihle Spani, a voter in Johannesburg, recalled that black South Africans were unable to vote during apartheid and that voting today was a kind of tribute to those who had lacked basic rights. With one in four South Africans unemployed and zero growth projected this year, many citizens are losing faith in the ruling party’s ability to deliver the transformational change needed to redress historical imbalances. Now, a record drought threatens agricultural output, food security and water supplies.
“We need better government”, said Doug Barrow, 72, who voted for the DA at a polling station in the upscale suburb of Inanda. “They’ve proved themselves in the Western Cape [the only province now controlled by the DA] and that’s good enough for me”. “Zuma doesn’t make decisions alone so the ANC is not Zuma alone, it’s a collective”, he said.
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In December, respect plummeted for Zuma after he fired Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene, replacing him with a little-known member of parliament, then recruited Pravin Gordhan for the job.
