Johannesburg – The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will tonight declare the election results of this year’s local government polls, which saw the ANC and the DA declining by 8% nationally and more hung councils emerging.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose party was the biggest victim of the low voter turnout, is expected to deliver brief remarks during the event, in his capacity as the head of state.
“Held on Monday, 01 November 2021, with special votes cast on 30 and 31 October, these elections were the sixth held in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994. These elections enabled voters to exercise their democratic right and civic duty to elect new leadership and influence service delivery where they live,” The Presidency said in a statement this morning.
With 96% votes processed by this morning, the ANC has fallen to a historic low of 46% of votes nationally, followed by the DA with 21,3% and the EFF in third position after amassing 10,3% of the votes.
The DA under John Steenhuisen – although it has retained strongholds such as Cape Town and Midvaal – has declined by almost 8% as compared to the last local government elections in 2016.
The EFF grew by 2% (from 8,1% in 2016 to 10,3% in 2021).
The decline in the ANC votes at this year’s local government elections was a message for the ANC to shape up, ANC secretary general Jessie Duarte said yesterday, who conceding that the low voter turnout was indicative that people were disappointed in the ruling party.
Duarte, who was flanked by ANC elections head Fikile Mbalula and the party’s treasurer general Paul Mashatile, said the party has heard the concerns of the people.
“2021 local government elections have been amongst the most difficult elections we have contested as the ANC. It is raising alarm for the ANC that the low voter turnout, especially from the ANC’s traditional strongholds, communicated clear message that people are disappointed in the ANC with slow progress in ensuring consistency in providing basic service delivery and tackling corruption,” she said.
“The ANC had the message loud and clear,” she added, speaking at the Independent Electoral Commission’s National Results Operations Centre in Pretoria.
Her comments came as the IEC announced that counting of the elections was over and that the electoral body was on course to declare the elections tomorrow.
With 96% of the capturing of the votes done, the ANC was well below the psychological 50% of the national votes – for the first time since 1994.
In 2016, the ruling party scored 53,9% nationally. It was during these watershed elections that the party lost control of key municipalities, including Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay and was forced into a coalition in Ekurhuleni.
Indications were that this year’s elections were going to produce more hung municipalities, where the ANC is facing two possibilities: lose metros to DA-led coalitions as was the case in 2016 or enter into deals with the EFF, or even the DA.
More metros beyond the Eastern Cape (Nelson Mandela Bay) and Gauteng (Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg) looked set for coalitions (KwaZulu Natal’s eThekwini).
Julius Malema’s party has made it clear that it wanted to share governing of municipalities with its coalition partners instead of sharing power inside the councils.
The ANC would on Friday convene an extended meeting of its national working committee (NWC) to thrash out conditions under which they would enter coalitions, and with which parties were they willing to do so.
Mashatile said his party was not going to enter into coalitions at all costs, saying they were prepared to be opposition in some councils.
“We are carefully considering how we are going and who to work with in pursuing coalitions in some parts of municipalities. We are keen to work with those who want to pursue the agenda of delivering services to our citizens,” he said.
“We have done multiple coalitions before, we will be able to work with those parties who agree with our agenda, however, we are not desperate for coalitions. Those who say no to the ANC we will not chase them,” he said.
Mbalula said the worst could have happened in these elections, arguing that the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa saved the day for the party.
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