Where the English have football, South Africans have politics. This occurred to me as I stood near the stadium where SA will host the World Cup final.
Party leaders gathered with IEC officials and the media at the results centre on Saturday afternoon in Pretoria where the results were announced.
The ANC was happy with its performance in the election despite missing a two-thirds majority by a whisker, the party said on Saturday.
The ANC is set to fall just short of the two-thirds of votes needed to ensure a parliamentary majority sufficient to make sweeping changes.
Jacob Zuma’s election victory has been welcomed by ministers in Zimbabwe as intensifying pressure on President Robert Mugabe.
The rand slipped against the dollar on Friday as some investors worried about the size of the ruling ANC’s huge election majority.
Why did the Congress of the People fare so badly? This was the central question which emerged from South Africa’s fourth democratic election.
When it announced that about 50 ANC MPs would cross to Cope, the ANC went into panic mode.
Hundreds of African National Congress supporters braved a wintry Johannesburg on Thursday night to celebrate the party’s victory.
It was an easy win for the ANC. But what quickly emerged was that a shift had occurred in the South African political landscape.
Patricia de Lille takes a seat, far away from the other political parties, watching as the overseas voter results appear on the screen at the IEC.
The number of votes coming into the IEC’s national results centre picked up from a trickle to more substantial numbers by Thursday afternoon.
The ANC’s lead in the national election took a 0,13% dip over lunchtime on Thursday as more results from Gauteng polling stations became available.
The ANC was leading the race in eight of the nine provinces late on Thursday morning while the ruling party has also increased its lead over the DA.
Many deserted the IFP, some changed their votes to Cope, and others just kept on voting for SA’s liberation movement, the ANC.
DA leader Helen Zille told the Mail & Guardian Online on Thursday that the party is ”not very happy” about the election results.
With three million votes counted, the ANC is cruising to another convincing victory in South Africa’s fourth democratic election.
With more than 300 000 votes counted in this year’s general election, the 60% mark continued to elude the ruling African National Congress.
The African National Congress managed to secure three votes (1,08%) in the conservative Northern Cape town of Orania in Wednesday’s national election.
At midnight on Wednesday the elections results showed that the ANC is in poll position to take the majority in the 2009 national elections.
The ANC in Cape Town cried foul after at least 14 polling stations were closed down because there was no electricity.
While political parties insist that manifestos play a major part in their campaigns, it appears that many voters don’t consider them at all.
The ululating coursed through voters at the Ntolweni Primary School like a set of aural dominoes as Jacob Zuma stepped out of his 4X4 at Nxamalala.
South Africans voted on Wednesday in an election that poses the toughest test for the ANC since apartheid ended 15 years ago.
Election day in SA has always been cause for celebration. While the shine of ’94 may have worn off, it’s still a day when communities come together.
Although only hours away from the country’s fourth general democratic elections, some South Africans remain undecided on which party to vote for.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille said “one vote can win it” on the eve of Wednesday’s 2009 national and provincial general election.
There was a shouting match between IFP and ANC members in front of international election observers at the Holiday Inn in Ulundi on Tuesday afternoon.
Opposition parties left it too late to capitalise on the negative perceptions of ANC president Jacob Zuma in their bid to sway undecided voters.
The African National Congress (ANC) will retain its two-thirds majority, according to an Ipsos-Markinor poll published on Tuesday.
History shows that the Congress of the People was a “by-product” waiting to happen, ANC president Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday.
Allan Boesak, the Western Cape premier candidate for Cope, has invited DA leader Helen Zille to join his party.