The IEC has finalised results from Monday’s local government elections.
Looking at the overall national picture, the ANC won 46% of the vote, the first time it has failed to secure over 50% of all the votes cast in a countrywide election. The DA was second with 21.8% of the vote, its worst local government performance since 2006.
The EFF was third with 10.4% of the overall national vote.
The IFP was the only other party to win more than five percent of the national vote, with 5.7%.
There will be an unprecedented number of hung councils. Of the 209 councils in South Africa, there are 66 where no party has an overall majority, primarily in the Western Cape, Northern Cape, and Gauteng.
The ANC is the largest party in 167 councils, the DA in 24, and the IFP in 16. The National Freedom Party and the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa were each the biggest party in one municipality.
Most of South Africa’s metro councils are also hung. Of the eight metros, only Cape Town, Buffalo City (East London), and Mangaung (Bloemfontein) will not be governed in coalition.
In Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth/Gqberha), the DA was the biggest party in terms of votes, but won the same number of seats (48) as the ANC in the 120-seat council.
The ANC lost its majority for the first time in eThekwini (Durban), managing only 42% of the vote, with the DA on a quarter.
In all three of Gauteng’s metros the ANC failed to reach 40% of the vote, the first time this has happened. However, it was the biggest party in each of the metros in the country’s economic hub, with the DA second in each. In Ekurhuleni, the ANC and EFF could form a coalition without the need for a third party, while in Johannesburg and Tshwane the DA could form multi-party coalitions to govern without the EFF or the ANC.
Although this will be seen as a rebuke for the ANC outside of the Western Cape (where the DA dominates) and KwaZulu-Natal (where the IFP is the biggest single party across many of the province’s municipalities), the ruling party still largely dominates in the rest of South Africa. The ANC is still the single biggest party in every municipality in the other seven provinces, with the exception of Midvaal in Gauteng and Kouga and Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape.
The Patriotic Alliance, led by former gangster Gayton McKenzie, was one of the surprises of the election, winning one percent of the national vote, and 75 seats.
Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA also had a good outing in its electoral debut, winning 2.4% of the national vote, despite standing in only six municipalities. It also won 16% of the vote in Johannesburg, where Mashaba was mayor between 2016 and 2019, making it the third-biggest party in South Africa’s largest city.
The Freedom Front Plus also had its best-ever showing in a municipal election this century, winning over two percent of the national vote, and 221 seats in councils across the country.
Much horsetrading will now commence as parties attempt to cobble together coalitions in the various hung councils.
There will also likely be pressure on DA leader John Steenhuisen to resign, following the precedent set by his predecessor, Mmusi Maimane.