There is an election bloodbath in KwaZulu-Natal, with the current count of votes pointing to smaller parties, including the EFF, ActionSA and NFP, as the major casualties.
It also does not look good for the new kid on the block Rise Mzansi whose campaign was heavily funded, but so far they have nothing to show for it.
The party was also campaigning on key issues affecting the majority of South Africans.
By early morning on Friday, with over one million votes counted, equating to 40% of the provincial ballot, the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party had continued its dominance.
It had recorded over 500 000 of the total number of cast votes. The red berets, who had made it known that they wanted nothing more than a million votes in KZN by 7am, were close to 25 000 votes.
ActionSA was sitting at 2 641, NFP 8 092 while Rise Mzansi was struggling, having only gained 1 213 of the provincial votes.
The IFP-splinter party, the NFP, also suffered heavily in the polls.
“The numbers are shocking us. Although we knew that we went to these elections confronted by internal problems, we had high hopes that we would get something from the elections.
“At least a seat or two in the provincial legislature. Even in our strongholds, mainly in Zululand, in areas such as eDumbe, Ulundi and Nongoma, our numbers are going down,” lamented NFP KZN chairperson Mbali Shinga.
The party, had centred its image around the popular figure of its founding President Zanele kaMagwaza Msibi. Her sudden death led to the party being torn apart into factions with key leaders jumping ship to join other parties.
The latest leader to vacate NFP was its parliamentary leader Munzoor Shaik Emam who formed the Allied Movement 4 Change, which mainly has the footprint in KZN.
KaMagwaza-Msibi was touted as the one to follow in the footsteps of the late Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi. The pair had a fallout, prompting KaMagwaza-Msibi to form her own organisation, snatching various municipalities from the IFP, including the Zululand district, one of the IFP’s strongholds.
In fact, it’s common for political parties in KZN to be branded around an individual, such as the late Buthelezi of the IFP and former president Jacob Zuma of the MK party.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM), which had a seat in the provincial legislature, was also disappointed.
“We were hoping to get even more than one seat we had the last time. We are still below in securing even the seat we had. But we’re still optimistic because we are still waiting for the metro and other areas which are our strongholds,” said Sibusiso Mncwabe ATM spokesperson.
It was expected that ActionSA, which was contesting the general elections for the first time will do well in the province. The party is led by former DA KZN leader Zwakele Mncwango. In its maiden municipality elections, the party contested three councils newly Newcastle, KwaDukuza and eThekwini—and did exceptionally well. It was represented in all the municipalities it contested and in some instances claimed more than 3 seats.
