In Tshwane, a metropolitan area that includes Pretoria, the Democratic Alliance (DA) won 43.1 percent of the vote over the ANC’s 41.2 percent, the electoral commission reported.
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The African National Congress (ANC) reeled from bruising local election results Friday as South African voters drift away from the celebrated party that led the anti-apartheid struggle.
The provincial executive committee of the African National Congress chapter in Gauteng said in a statement April 12, “Our president, comrade Jacob Zuma, should reflect deeply and do the right thing to resolve the unprecedented crisis that the ANC now faces”.
The Democratic Alliance started as a liberal white party opposing the apartheid regime from within the racist system but has expanded its support among black South Africans.
According to U.S. News & World Report, the DA and EFF made progress in what were historically ANC strongholds. In time we will see if this election is, as Mr Maimane said on Saturday, “a tipping point for the people of South Africa”.
In a related development, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it was disappointed that the ANC’s share of the national vote had “decreased dramatically” in the just ended polls.
The opposition Democratic Alliance party, which has roots in the anti-apartheid movement and had a white party leader until a year ago, made a strong move out of its stronghold in the city of Cape Town, winning in at least three of the country’s six largest municipalities.
The Democratic Alliance angered the ANC last month by declaring that it was the only party that could realize Mandela’s dream of a “prosperous, united and non-racial South Africa”.
In an ironic twist, the ANC, a party founded by Nelson Mandela, suffered its first major loss in a municipality known as Nelson Mandela Bay.
With less than 1% of votes left to be counted, the race for the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, remains too close to call.
ANC officials in the area, however, said they were lodging a complaint about 500 dumped ballot papers found there with votes marked for the party.
EFF has said it is willing to work with the ANC on condition that President Jacob Zuma steps down.
In April Zuma survived an impeachment vote after the Constitutional Court said he has broke the law by ignoring an order to repay some of the $16 million in state funds spent on renovating his private home in Nkandla, in response to it Zuma was ready to pay money.
“It would be premature to read someone’s tombstone before they die”, he said.
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Performance Reflection The 104-year-old ANC will address voter concerns and bounce back, said Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a leading contender to succeed Zuma as the party’s president when his current term ends late next year.
