But its grip on power is being shaken against the backdrop of high unemployment, a stagnating economy and a series of scandals that have dogged President Jacob Zuma.
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With the final ballots counted Sunday, the Democratic Alliance added the municipality of Tshwane, which includes Pretoria, to its electoral haul, outpolling the ANC by two percentage points, 43 percent to 41 percent. The result further broadens the reach of the Democratic Alliance, which traditionally has been led by white South Africans, and which the ANC attacked during the campaign as a party of white leaders and black stooges.
While the ANC had some introspection to do after its poor showing in the elections, Zuma was not the ANC, he said.
“Ideologically, the EFF is closer to the ANC, though it will be loath to support the ANC which it has acrimoniously opposed in the National Assembly”, he said.
South Africa’s municipal elections on August 3 were among the most important in the brief history of the country’s democracy.
The results have reshaped the political landscape in South Africa where the ANC has ruled virtually unopposed since it ended white-minority rule in 1994, led by Nelson Mandela.
Although the part has beaten it’s biggest opponent, the DA will need to for a coalition to secure control there.
The ANC also lost control of the symbolic Nelson Mandela Bay area, which includes Port Elizabeth, to the DA – again without a majority so a coalition there is also possible.
According to analysts, these local elections were being seen as an indication of the mid-term popularity of President Jacob Zuma, the BBC said.
With no party reaching a majority in Johannesburg or Tshwane, the possible formation of coalition governments is the next challenge. It was founded by Mr John Langalibalele Dube on January 8, 1912 in Bloemfontein as the South African Native National Congress with the main aim of ending the despicable, inhuman system of apartheid and giving blacks and mixed race Africans the right to vote.
“These elections were hotly contested, that is how it should be in a democracy”, he said.
After the latest election, Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president, responded in a way that exemplified the best tradition of the ANC.
“We can confirm that we are into (coalition) negotiations as we speak”, Paul Mashatile, the ANC chairman in Gauteng province, said on Saturday.
The ANC has lost support among voters who feel their lives have not improved, and the opposition has accused Zuma of mismanaging the economy. But if the DA and other parties manage to garner broad support in the black population, then the process of developing coherent ideology and policy will begin.
The British creation of the upstart Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF), whose leader was recently anointed by the Royal Institute of International Affairs/Chatham House, played a role in the ANC’s losses by presenting a phony “left” alternative.
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However, Zuma, jailed on Robben Island with Mandela during apartheid, retains deep loyalty inside the ANC and in many rural areas, although he can not stand for a third term.
