At 5am on Friday morning, the ANC led with 47,55 percent of the vote, followed by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 25,41 percent, while the Democratic Alliance stood at 18,26 percent.
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With around 70% of the votes counted thus far, the ANC has nudged just ahead of the with 41,8% of the vote for the City of Johannesburg, while the DA has gained 41,72% and the EFF 10%.
In Johannesburg, the ANC had 41.83% and the DA 41.71%.
The DA officially launched its bid to win over the Eastern Cape previous year, with Athol Trollip announcing his mayoral campaign for the Nelson Mandela Metro.
Kouga DA mayoral candidate Elza van Lingen told the Daily Dispatch the first thing the DA led council would do was to “clean up” the place.
Earlier on Thursday, Scholtz said it was unlikely that the DA or ANC would surpass the 50% mark.
Overall, the ANC was still leading in North West with 60,23 percent and in control of ten municipalities, the EFF was second with 15,45 percent and DA third with 14,08 percent. With one in four South Africans unemployed and zero growth projected this year, many citizens are losing faith in the ruling party’s ability to deliver the transformational change needed to redress historical imbalances.
“The question is: Who is going to be the biggest party – it’s probably going to be the ANC by the looks of the numbers”, Scholtz said.
Turnout has become a key factor in the close competition between the two parties, said Scholtz.
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In Tshwane, the DA had 43.54%, the ANC 41.89%, and the EFF 10.5%.
