The DA, led by Mmusi Maimane, topped the poll in municipal elections in the capital Pretoria, taking 93 seats out of 214 to 89 for the African National Congress, which suffered its worst result since the end of white-minority rule 22 years ago, falling below 60 percent of the vote for the first time.
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On the eve of voting, Trollip’s ANC opponent, Danny Jordaan, said the DA strategy of invoking Mandela’s name and ideas during its campaign was akin to nailing Jesus to the cross and the next day claiming you were a Christian.
The opposition Democratic Alliance made a strong expansion from its stronghold in the city of Cape Town.
Teffo and the University of Johannesburg’s Professor Tinyiko Maluleke said although coalition governments were complex and hard to manage, the ANC, Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) had no choice but to co-govern some of the metros and key municipalities.
The DA won the strategic Nelson Mandela Bay metro, dubbed as “home of the ANC”.
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.
The ANC has also lost Nelson Mandela Bay, which includes the city of Port Elizabeth and has a rich history of anti-apartheid struggle, in the Eastern Cape to the DA.
At the national level ANC remains the nation’s top party, but it has seen its support plunge 8 points from 2011, when it won 53.9%.
The briefing was supposed to have been held by ANC greater Johannesburg chairperson, Parks Tau, whose position as mayor in the metro now hangs in the balance as the party failed to reach 50% of the vote in the elections.
The DA was once considered a champion of the white middle classes and has its first black leader, Mmusi Maimane.
The results for the ANC could put pressure on President Zuma to leave office before his term ends in 2019, according to political analysts.
The final results the IEC will announce later on Saturday will give mandates to political parties to carry on these achievements of local government in South Africa and hopefully ensure that South Africans continue to benefit from the basic services the country’s 278 municipalities are expected to deliver.
The change may also have a bearing on national policy, and there’s a risk of the party pursuing a more populist agenda to appease rural communities, said Robert Besselling, executive director of risk advisers EXX Africa.
Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist who sometimes appears at rallies dressed in leopard skins and has four wives and at least 20 children, has played a leading role in alienating the ANC’s urban supporters. The Constitutional Court recently instructed Mr Zuma to reimburse the state $507,000.
Coalitions will not be easy to build since the ANC has called them “tactical marriages of convenience” and said that it could not enter a coalition with the DA.
With no party securing an absolute majority, the two main parties are set to talk to radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
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The EFF, led by former ANC man Julius Malema, was being credited as winning around eight percent and 11.09 percent in Pretoria and Johannesburg.
