“The ANC has done well in the largely rural provinces where the Premier League is strong”, Imraan Buccus, senior research associate at the Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute, said in an opinion piece in Johannesburg’s Sunday Times.
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The ANC even lost its seat in the stronghold of Nelson Mandela Bay, with all votes counted showing a victory for the opposition Democratic Alliance.
The ANC still won the most votes overall, and was working to form coalitions in the municipalities where it lost its majority.
THE EFF has not started any formal talks on coalitions, nor has it put any conditions on the table after last week’s local government elections.
When the election results are looked at from the standpoint of what Zuma must do next, they demonstrate the great strength on which he must build: The ANC will hold its party election for its next president in December 2017, and Zuma’s faction must prevail there, because the new president is then expected to be the ANC’s candidate for South African President in the 2019 election.
Johannesburg was left with a hung council after the ANC received 44.55 percent of the vote and the DA got 38.37 percent.
South Africans are increasingly expressing frustration with rampant corruption and poor public services.
“We have a lot of experience in coalitions and I’m confident it will work out”, said Selfe.
One of the EFF’s demands is for President Jacob Zuma to be removed as president if any agreement on a coalition is to take place with the ANC.
South Africans on Instagram posted pictures of their inked thumbs to show they cast their vote Wednesday.
Both parties had been accused of trying to use Mandela’s legacy to their advantage in the campaign.
“For far too long, the ANC has governed South Africa with absolute impunity”, the party’s leader, 36-year-old Mmusi Maimane, told reporters earlier Saturday.
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”.
– Unions are concerned that a shift in political power at metropolitan municipalities after the elections could mean a purge of African National Congress (ANC)-aligned workers.
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His party has tapped into a deep vein of discontent at the lack of economic transformation in the country and, with the group’s trademark red berets and tactical use of the media, it has become a significant populist player.
