The African National Congress was “very disappointed” over losing Midvaal in Gauteng to the Democratic Alliance and needed to work harder in minority areas, the party’s secretary general said at the IEC’s results centre in Pretoria on Thursday.
“The ANC must work harder, we are not doing well in the minority areas,” Gwede Mantashe said as election results started coming in.
“We are sorry we didn’t take it … we really wanted it.”
He said the ANC needed to “invest more time” in areas such as Eldorado Park in southern Johannesburg, which had “shifted” its vote.
Mantashe said the party needed new campaigns in areas in which it was weak.
The ANC had garnered 62% of the 14,3-million local government election votes counted by 9am on Thursday morning.
The NFP, which was created by the IFP’s former national chairperson Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi earlier this year, had secured 311 072 votes to the 455 740 of the IFP.
According to figures from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), 8 892 074 votes had been cast in favour of the ANC while the Democratic Alliance (DA) had secured 3 575 932 votes or 24,92%.
It was still not clear how many of South Africa’s 23,65-million voters took part in Wednesday’s election.
Chief Electoral Officer Pansy Tlakula told a press briefing on Wednesday that she hoped that at least 40% of registered voters had cast their ballots.
Of the 14,3-million votes cast by 5,19-million voters counted by 9am, 275 036 were spoiled ballots.
At 9am the IEC was reporting that the ANC had secured 1329 council seats, the DA 568 seats, the Congress of the People (Cope) 116 and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) 34.
Bruising battle
In the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, the DA and the ANC appeared to be in a bruising battle with the ANC edging ahead of the DA.
At 7am, the IEC was reporting that the DA had garnered 211 571 votes to the ANC’s 254 301 votes.
Attempts by the ANC to regain control of Western Cape municipalities did not appear to be bearing fruit.
According to IEC figures, the ANC had secured about 30% of the vote in the province compared to about 60% for the DA. This was based on 1 983 779 votes cast by 729 547 voters.
A ward in Randfontein, west of Johannesburg, was the first to complete its vote counting. The ANC won 57% of the vote and the DA 43%.
Nine people were registered in Ward 74802011. Seven of them voted, with the ANC receiving four votes and the DA three. – Sapa
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