/ 10 May 2019

Townships hold fate of Gauteng in their hands

A voting station in Soweto
A voting station in Soweto, which could decide if the ANC has an outright majority in Gauteng. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

The fate of Gauteng lies in the hands of the province’s biggest townships, with the likes of Soweto, Soshanguve and Tembisa likely to decide whether the ANC will enjoy an outright majority.

With the numbers trickling in and 81% of the vote counted, the ANC was teetering in or around the 50% mark, followed by the DA with 27% and the EFF sitting at 14%.

There are 73 areas in Johannesburg still to be captured. Some areas have more than 50 voting districts that are outstanding.

Earlier on Friday, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research revised its prediction for the Gauteng vote, with the ANC set to attain about 50%. This would be a decrease of three percentage points from the 2014 national elections.

Much of that will depend on the just under one million voters represented by the townships, including Soweto — which had over 143 000 registered voters and at a predicted turnout of 65% will count for 93 323 votes. Soweto has 62 voting districts still to be captured.

Other places in Gauteng that had not been captured by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) count include 57 voting districts in Pretoria, 55 stations in Soshanguve. Centurion also has 34 districts outstanding and between Alexandra and Sandton, 28 districts that are yet to be captured.

On the floor of the IEC results centre, talk was rife among pundits and media about coalitions, with politicians refusing to entertain speculation