Platinum belt miners are angry and glaring wage inequality is at the root of their dissatisfaction.
The DA gained 3.2 percentage points in the Western Cape provincial election – but not at the expense of the ANC.
Despite internal party strife in Nelson Mandela Bay, the ANC crossed the 70% mark in the Eastern Cape, followed by the DA.
The ANC shed five percentage points of its support in Limpopo, but Cope saw its 2009 second-place finish usurped by the EFF in another humiliation.
Despite dropping six percentage points, the ANC has won the provincial vote in the North West, the province in which the Marikana massacre took place.
The Northern Cape’s votes have been counted, and while the DA and ANC have walked away smiling, Cope has been left humiliated.
With no major incidents or impediments reported, and only one formal objection by noon on Thursday, the 2014 election result faces no serious hurdles.
Early projections show the ruling party will likely keep over 60% of SA’s support. But it won’t get a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
This year’s polls will be memorable only for how they set the scene for the white-knuckle election in 2019 – the vote that will change everything.
A voting station in Alexandra closed in the early afternoon amid allegations of vote rigging and collusion between the ANC and the IEC.