And internal ANC relationships are even more strained than usual – there is significant tension between Jacob Zuma and his KwaZulu-Natal base, the older establishment moderates like Tokyo Sexwale and Matthews Phosa, the slick young “born free” generation of ANC politicians emerging especially in Gauteng, and the trade union movement, parts of which have given up on the ANC entirely.
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The DA took 43 per cent of the vote, compared with the ANC’s 41 per cent in Tshwane, the municipality that includes Pretoria. Additionally, the DA only narrowly missed an opportunity to oust the ANC for control of Johannesburg, which includes the storied all-black township of Soweto, winning 38 percent of the vote to the ANC´s 45 percent.
It is the ANC’s worst electoral performance since it was elected to power at the end of apartheid and the replacement of white minority rule by democracy in 1994, and the first time since then that it has lost control of the capital.
The setback to the ANC “happened quicker and harder than everyone thought!”
The ANC has lost support among voters who feel their lives have not improved and the opposition has accused Zuma of mismanaging the economy.
The ANC will now have to form a coalition government with the DA in provinces that it won overwhelmingly in past elections, sometimes with margins approaching 75 percent.
At the national level ANC remains the nation’s top party, but it has seen its support plunge 8 points from 2011, when it won 53.9%.
But in the electoral quake that has just shaken South Africa, the ANC has been punished in its urban strongholds.
Turnout was about 58 percent, as voters chose mayors and other local representatives responsible for hot-button issues including water, sanitation and power supplies.
Problems providing such basics trigger regular and sometimes violent “service delivery” protests in South Africa, where harsh socio-economic divisions remain a grim legacy of the apartheid era.
The ANC’s national leadership has given the provincial leaders full powers to negotiate coalitions with “anyone”, according to secretary-general Gwede Mantashe – with the proviso that they keep the leadership regularly updated on developments.
“Clearly our people are sending out messages all around, we are going to listen very, very carefully”.
“We are going to do an introspective look at ourselves. we are a party that is not going away”, he said. There are three options: One, rerun.
He has been plagued by scandals since taking office in 2009.
The president survived an impeachment vote in April after the Constitutional Court said he had broken the law by ignoring an order to repay some of $16 million in state funds spent on renovating his private home.
“A battle in the party could emerge from these poor results and (the) ANC would have to find a dignified exit strategy for Zuma”, independent political analyst Daniel Silke told Agence France-Presse.
The DA will also need to form coalitions to govern in both Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay.
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With no party securing an absolute majority, the two main parties are set to talk to radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
