The Democratic Alliance was trailing the African National Congress in most wards as municipal election results were trickling in on Thursday morning.
Overall provisional statistics showed the ANC had received 6 446 113 votes and the DA 1 703 787, followed by the Inkatha Freedom Party with 526 323 and the Independent Democrats with 254 285.
The African National Congress had captured 14 of the 20 counted Western Cape municipalities by 8am on Thursday against three for the Democratic Alliance. Results were still outstanding in four Western Cape municipalities as well as in the Cape metropole.
In KwaZulu-Natal, counting was also going slowly with only three councils out of 55 municipalities and district councils finished counting. The ANC received 46% of ward votes followed by the IFP with 38,12% and the DA with 7,98%.
The National Democratic Convention (Nadeco), formed by Ziba Jiyane who broke away from the IFP to form the party late last year after a fallout with IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, received a provisional 21 133 votes in its first election.
The ANC was also in the lead in Gauteng with twice as many votes as the DA. The Freedom Front Plus had secured a provisional 32 949 votes in the province, with about a quarter of voting stations finished counting.
Overall voting was almost halfway complete in all provinces in the process of electing about 45 000 councillors in 283 municipalities.
The Democratic Alliance had secured a total of 153 seats of 550 available and the ANC 319. — Sapa