As reporter Peter Granitz told NPR’s Newscast unit, the opposition Democratic Alliance gained control of the capital, Pretoria, and Nelson Mandela Bay, where the late Mandela hails from.
Advertisement
The ANC chairman in Gauteng province, which includes both Tshwane and Johannesburg, said his party was also seeking to form a coalition to govern both municipalities, adding there was likely to be no outright victor in either of the urban areas.
ANC South Africa’s ruling party facing worst electoral performance since coming to power two decades ago, it is on the edge to lose power of the key metropolitan area in the refusal of the increasing anger of the jobless people and lack of basic amenities.
A loss in Port Elizabeth by a margin of 46.7 percent to 40 percent was a blow for the ANC in the municipality known as “Nelson Mandela Bay”.
The Democratic Alliance, led by Mr Mmusi Maimane, topped the poll in the capital Pretoria, winning 93 of the 214 seats.
Nicholas Dawes, Chief Content Editor at Hindustan Times, a South African expert told NDTV, “The rural people still relate to it as a party of freedom fighters but the urban have begun to see that ANC is corrupt”. With 95 percent of votes counted the ruling ANC appea.
Municipal elections are not usually much of a show in South Africa, but the dramatic shift in support from the ANC to the Democratic Alliance could serve as a sign that change may come at the parliamentary and presidential levels, too.
The DA already runs Cape Town, which is the country’s only major city where black people are not in the majority.
South Africans should start embracing the era of coalition governments because there was little hope that individual political parties would dethrone the African National Congress (ANC) on their own, a political analyst said.
Revelations that upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private home were funded with $20m of public money caused an outcry.
ANC officials said they would greet the results with introspection, but the party now faces a challenge that many African liberation movements have failed to overcome: adapting and evolving amid growing political competition.
In a statement, the ANC said “we will reflect and introspect where our support has dropped”.
The party once led by Nelson Mandela was on 54 percent – sharply down from 62 percent in the last municipal elections in 2011.
The opposition Democratic Alliance, which has roots in the anti-apartheid movement and was white-led until previous year, has predicted victory in Tshwane.
Maimane immediately looked ahead to presidential elections. He added that “the idea that his party was a white one has been ‘completely shattered'”.
Advertisement
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.
