The Independent Electoral Commission confirmed that the Opposition Democratic Alliance had won 43 per cent to the ANC’s 41 per cent.
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“The African National Congress‚ the party that helped liberate black South Africans from white-minority rule but has become mired in corruption‚ endured its worst election since taking power after the end of apartheid‚ according to results released on Friday”. Mandela’s party, the African National Congress, was rightly credited with ending apartheid (though it was not only them), inspiring deep loyalty among South Africa’s black citizens – some 80 percent of the population. From the left, the Economic Freedom Fighters-a self-styled Marxist-Leninist-Fanonist Party-has attracted the support of many young people who are leaving the ANC to seek more radical solutions to the country’s 50 percent youth unemployment rate; since 2013, the party has captured hundreds of posts once held by the ANC.
Similarly, the DA delivered a crushing blow to the ANC in many parts of South Africa, including in staunchly anti-apartheid areas. South Africa is due to hold its next national elections in 2019.
Mmusi Maimane, whose leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA) since previous year has helped overturn its image as a party for wealthy whites, called the vote a historic break with the past that could bring the DA into national government in 2019.
Maimane immediately looked ahead to presidential elections.
The party’s election in 2014 of a black leader, Mmusi Maimane, seems to have worked even though at the time, the ANC ridiculed him as a stooge.
The ANC lost a key municipality named after its star, Nelson Mandela Bay, to the Democratic Alliance, which fielded a white candidate for mayor.
“These elections were hotly contested, that is how it should be in a democracy”, said Zuma, who is facing questions about his position after the poll. He added that “the idea that his party was a white one has been ‘completely shattered'”.
The ANC has struggled with corruption and incompetence since the end of Mandela’s single term as president in 1999, but loyalty and patronage networks kept voters in the party. “We don’t believe that any of the organizations that are on offer in South Africa have a better solution than the African National Congress”, he said.
The DA, once anti-apartheid parties run by white politicians, now has many black leaders and campaigned on a platform of good governance, the AP reported.
It said the ANC led the countrywide elections overall, garnering 54.4 per cent support as compared with the DA’s 26.3 per cent.
“It signals to everyone that the tide in our country is turning”, Maimane told reporters on Saturday.Since the end of apartheid, the ANC had enjoyed an electoral grip on these areas.
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In a statement, the ANC said that “we will reflect and introspect where our support has dropped”. The Constitutional Court recently instructed Mr Zuma to reimburse the state $507,000.
