The opposition Democratic Alliance is challenging the African National Congress in both municipalities.
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Nationally, with 90 per cent of ballots counted from Wednesday’s local elections, the ANC held 54 per cent of the vote, down sharply from 62 per cent in the national election two years ago, while the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) had climbed to 26 per cent, up from 22 per cent in the previous national election.
The Economic Freedom Fighters, which advocates the nationalization of mines, banks and land, holds the balance of power in Pretoria and Johannesburg.
“Where I come from, there is a lot of pressure to vote for the ANC”, said Tando, declining to give his last name due to the stigma attached to the DA in his township, where dirt tracks wind between makeshift shacks.
Named after ANC liberation hero and South Africa’s first democratically elected president, the loss of Nelson Mandela Bay is a big blow to the party.
Eyewitness News quoted Malema telling party activists: “We are happy that the EFF is the first organisation to humble the ANC – the most arrogant organisation”.
Trollip said with 65% of the vote counted in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, it was still “early days to declare victory, but it’s exciting”.
But it has also claimed an ANC stronghold in the Eastern Cape community near Mandela’s hometown, Port Elizabeth, and is neck and neck with the ANC for political control of the capitol city of Pretoria and Johannesburg.
DA leader Maimane said his party would “put the best coalition on the table” when asked if he would be open to sharing power in some areas.
“I think that to me says that our message got through – it says our people heard us and South Africans still believe in a dream of a non-racial South Africa”.
“In the case of Tshwane and Johannesburg the ANC will be the biggest party – but very significantly, it will fall below 50 percent, so we are looking at a major setback”, he said.
Mr Maimane earlier told 702 radio: “We call this the change election because we felt that it was a referendum on Jacob Zuma as a national figure, but we also had a referendum about the future of South Africa”.
Clearly the ANC still commands huge support across the country, but that support is waning.
The Democratic Alliance – or DA – appears poised to win the area.
Twenty-two years after the end of apartheid, black people are now voting on issues and not on race.
The African National Congress (ANC) reeled from bruising local election results Friday as South African voters drift away from the celebrated party that led the anti-apartheid struggle.
“We are happy that the ANC has been punished”, charismatic party leader Julius Malema told reporters.
Yet, Zuma’s allies in the ANC National Executive Committee and in the government may shield him for being replaced before his current presidential term ends in 2019.
A women wearing ANC regalia casts her vote during the local government elections in Hillbrow, central Johannesburg, South Africa.
South Africa’s unemployment rate is now 27 percent, alongside GDP growth at zero percent, crumbling education and health systems and persistent crime.
The results may weaken President Jacob Zuma’s position inside the ANC, because the outcome may be attributed to a scandal about state funding for the refurbishment of his private residence and court decisions to reinstate corruption charges, Fitch said.
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Security was tight for the elections and the electoral commission said voting had passed off smoothly.
