President Cyril Ramaphosa will Thursday evening attend the announcement of the final results of the 2021 local government elections, the culmination of a tough six-week campaign where service delivery and corruption complaints were at the heart of the voters nationwide.
With Ramaphosa admitting that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) could have done better in service delivery, he urged voters to give the party another chance to lead the councils.
Nearly 97% of the votes had been counted on Thursday morning, with final results expected to be revealed at the Results Operations Centre at the Tshwane Events Centre in Pretoria in the presence of the South African leader, the Independent Elections Commission (IEC) said.
According to the IEC website, leading the charge was the Free State, with all votes accounted for in the province. Hot on its heels were the North West, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces at 99%.
Gauteng and the Northern Cape were closely behind at 98%, while Limpopo and the Eastern Cape had so far counted 97% of the votes cast. The Western Cape lagged behind at 89%, the electoral body said.
A breakdown of the figures saw the ANC with the 45.94% of the votes, securing the control of 114 of the 155 councils where it has a majority vote, the IEC said.
The main opposition Democratic Alliance was second with 21.15% of the vote, and so far controlling 11 of the 23 councils in which it was leading.
The third party with most councils was the Inkatha Freedom Party of Zulu prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, controlling eight of the 13 councils where it had majority votes, the records showed.
The Economic Freedom Fighters had so far secured 10.38% of the vote. However, the party controls no councils nor does it have a majority lead in any of the country’s 257 councils, the IEC said.
Hung municipalities — 64 of them from 29 in 2016 polls — would require coalition governments between parties represented in the respective councils, according to political analysts.
NM/jn/APA