The DA held a narrow lead in the capital, Pretoria, with 66 percent of the votes in, while the two parties were on par in the economic hub of Johannesburg, with 64 percent of the votes counted.
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Senzo Makhubela, a 32-year-old security guard, told Reuters the ANC needed to build more houses and do more to develop areas like Diepsloot, the shantytown where he lives north of Johannesburg. “And they’re a little exhausted of the corruption scandals that have been nagging him since he came to power”.
The results for the ANC could put pressure on the 74-year-old Zuma to leave office before his mandate ends in 2019, political analysts said.
“It’s not going to be a quick process”, said Patel.
Both the ANC’s women’s and youth leagues pledged support for Zuma. “I think he will be blamed for the party’s showing”.
The ANC also has little appetite to oust another leader after the party’s removal of Thabo Mbeki in 2007 allowed Zuma to take over the leadership, Peter Attard Montalto, an economist at Nomura International, said in an emailed response to questions. “All sides have already agreed they can not remove another president”, he said. It was the best performer against the dollar on Thursday of 24 emerging markets currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
South Africa’s unemployment rate is now 27 percent, alongside GDP growth at zero percent, crumbling education and health systems and persistent crime.
Communities staged 102 protests against a lack of decent housing, education and other services in the first seven months of the year, up from 89 in the same period last year, according to Municipal IQ, which monitors the municipalities.
Paul Mashatile, the ANC chairman in Gauteng province, which includes Tshwane and Johannesburg, said: “We can confirm that we are into (coalition) negotiations as we speak”.
The radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party led by Julius Malema, Zuma’s one-time protege but now arch-foe, was running a distant third with about 10 percent of the vote.
The ruling party garnered 44 percent in Nkandla, a city that has become nearly synonymous with graft.
Defeat in Port Elizabeth was a humiliating blow for the ANC as the municipality is officially known as “Nelson Mandela Bay” in tribute to its past as a hotbed of anti-apartheid activism.
During campaigning, the ANC spent much time and money reminding voters of its liberation legacy and of the DA’s white roots, even comparing the party to the former apartheid regime.
While official results were not expected until Saturday at the earliest, Brown Brothers Harriman says ANC is likely to “swing more populist” to boost support ahead of the 2019 national elections. Although the ANC will keep a majority of their seats after this election, the insurgent opposition parties of the Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters have made significant progress in their development.
Clearly the ANC still commands huge support across the country but that support is waning.
“Probably this is the first election where the ANC will be standing around 54%, 55%”, Mthembu said.
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“We’ve lost Nelson Mandela Bay, we’ve conceded that we’ve lost it, and we are going to do an introspective look at ourselves… we are a party that is not going away”, he said.
