The DA, which a year ago elected its first black leader, Mmusi Maimane, as part of its efforts to shake off its image as a party that mainly serves white interests, has retained control of Cape Town, which it has held since 2006.
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The EFF’s 8 percent vote share countrywide, with almost all ballots counted, would represent a gain of just 2 percentage points from national elections two years ago. But it trailed the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in the municipality of Nelson Mandela Bay, which includes the city of Port Elizabeth, and Tshwane, home to the capital Pretoria.
The shock is amplified by the fact that only one of the country’s six biggest cities is now securely in the hands of a party that calls itself not merely the governing but the “ruling party”.
Meanwhile, Gauteng leaders believe the national ANC fought the wrong battle by allowing the elections to centre on national issues.
As it became clear his party could hold the balance of power, Malema – who was only 13 when white-minority rule ended and is one of the young generation of South African politicians adept on social media – put out a cryptic three-word tweet on Thursday: “Talks about talks”.
These bruising election results have left Zuma’s future as leader of the party hanging in the balance, with reports emerging that some ANC national executive committee (NEC) members are gunning for a special conference where Zuma’s “elegant exit” can be strategised, according to an IOL report.
Perhaps more than anything else, however, the ANC suffered from voters in urban townships sitting this one out. He added that the party had set its sights on Gauteng, the nation’s richest province, which is home to Pretoria and Johannesburg.
In his speech, Zuma said the elections had been well run and proved that South Africa’s democracy was maturing.
“People said they were paid to burn buses and block roads because certain leaders were not nominated; these matters were known within the ANC”. It retained support in many rural areas in a country where blacks make up 80 per cent of the population. Coalition negotiations will take place under time pressure, and could be fraught.
The DA has won 93 seats in Tshwane, while the ANC is second with 89 seats in the 214-seat municipal council.
It also said that sidelined ANC stalwart Mathews Phosa might play a leading role in talks with Malema, since he has maintained contact with the EFF leader. Ideologically and programmatically, however, they are light years apart.
A party of South African radical leftists has emerged as electoral kingmaker in major cities Pretoria and Johannesburg, giving a first taste of power to an ANC renegade who was once an acolyte of President Jacob Zuma.
The setback to the ANC “happened quicker and harder than everyone thought!” The DA maintained its majority in Cape Town, which it has had since 2006. “South Africa’s municipal election results bring a new dawn of coalitions at the local level that will alter the shape of politics in the long term”, Augustine Booth-Clibborn, an analyst at Africa Risk Consulting, said by e-mail.
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“We were instructed to campaign vigorously and convince people to vote and let the matters be dealt with afterwards”, said another senior official.
