With 95 percent of votes counted in municipal elections, South Africa’s ruling party appears to have suffered its biggest electoral blow since it won power at the end of the apartheid era 22 years ago.
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The opposition Democratic Alliance is challenging the ANC in both areas. Now it has lost two, including Nelson Mandela Bay, named for the ANC’s star and the country’s first black president.
Since South Africa’s first all-race election in 1994, the ANC has had widespread support on the strength of its successful fight against white-minority rule, while bringing basic amenities to many people who had had none.
After years of a struggling economy, rising unemployment and scandals starring ANC member and President Jacob Zuma, the party that ended apartheid has seen a major decline in support.
Mmusi Maimane, the DA leader, called the results a “vote for change”.
The ANC also lost its majority in Johannesburg, the country’s economic centre, where it won 44.5 per cent of the vote, and will now have to seek political allies in order to retain control.
Privately, opposition politicians in South Africa talk of a split in the ANC between “populists” and “constitutionalists”. On social media, South Africans mocked President Jacob Zuma’s recent claim that the ANC would rule “until Jesus comes back”. The party held Cape Town, which it has controlled since 2006. “We are a listening organisation, we are going to listen to our people”, said Ramaphosa.
He blamed the poor result on low voter turnout by ANC supporters countrywide.
With no party reaching a majority in Johannesburg or Tshwane, the possible formation of coalition governments is the next challenge. The party, which advocates the nationalisation of industry and other measures it says will help the poor, has garnered nearly eight percent of the vote nationwide.
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 in the local elections, with about 10 percent of the vote.
Mr. Zuma’s seven years in office have been marked by a series of scandals, including the use of millions of dollars in government funds to renovate his private home; accusations that Indian businessmen close to him offered to dole out powerful government posts in exchange for favorable treatment; and Mr. Zuma’s appointment of allies with little experience to important positions in government and state-owned companies. Many say this week’s results are a direct rebuke of Zuma, whose popularity among urban voters in particular has been sinking as his administration has lurched from crisis to crisis.
Voters have also become disillusioned by festering inequality; black people make up 80 percent of the 54 million population yet, two decades after apartheid, most of the economy in terms of ownership of land and companies remains in the hands of white people, who account for about 8 percent of the population. The rand has since recovered and received a boost from the lack of violence during the local elections.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president of the A.N.C. and of the nation, said at a news conference on Friday afternoon that the organization would “do an introspective look at ourselves”.
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“It’s a pretty humbling day for the ANC, which is trying to put a positive spin on things”, Al Jazeera’s Tania Page reported from the capital, Pretoria.
