The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has, since the first democratic local government elections in 2000, been a dominant governing party – winning an outright majority in nearly all of the countries municipalities with the exception of the City of Cape Town and a handful of municipalities in the Western Cape where the Democratic Alliance (DA) had been dominant since 2006. Neither party appeared to be winning a majority in those two cities that would allow it to govern alone, raising the possibility of coalition governments. Zuma didnt appear to respond.
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Reacting to the worst election result for the party since the end of white-minority rule 22 years ago, President Jacob Zuma said voters had been heard.
He pointed out that nationally the ANC still won a majority of votes. Given years of economic stagnation, the constant swirl of scandal around President Jacob Zuma, and the imposition of unpopular ANC mayoral candidates in some key cities, it is no surprise that some voters too loyal to the ANC to vote for anyone else chose to stay at home.
In June, a South African court rejected President Jacob Zuma’s efforts to appeal the nearly 800 charges brought against him. “It has relied on emotional appeals to its liberation history and traditional loyalties”, South Africa’s Mail & Guardian said in an editorial. On social media, South Africans mocked Zumas recent claim that the ANC would rule until Jesus comes back..
DA leader Mmusi Maimane gave assurances that the party would not purge any civil servants in the metros where it would take over from the ANC.
When all is said and done, following this week’s election, South African citizens and the country’s democracy are the ultimate victor.
The election was notable for its peaceful power shift away from an entrenched government in Africa, where some leaders have been in office for decades. In contrast, 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe in neighboring Zimbabwe has kept control since independence in 1980 with a series of disputed elections and crackdowns on dissent.
“We’ve lost Nelson Mandela Bay, we’ve conceded that we’ve lost it”. Now it has lost two, including Nelson Mandela Bay, named for the ANC’s star and the country’s first black president.
The DA has run Cape Town, the legislative capital, since 2006, and also won the industrial city of Port Elizabeth at this election. The party, which has roots in the anti-apartheid movement, has declared that its brand is good governance.
As the AP reported, Maimane said “the 2019 campaign starts now”.
Malema already has set out his terms for any coalition deals.
With 99 per cent of the votes counted so far from Wednesday’s local elections, the ANC was leading with the most votes overall but by its lowest percentage ever.
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“We’re waking up to a new political scene in South Africa”, said William Gumede, a political scientist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg according to the New York Times.
