Friday, 29th March 2024
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ANC beaten in South African capital

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) suffered a historic defeat in the nation's capital to the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in local elections, the electoral ...

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) suffered a historic defeat in the nation’s capital to the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in local elections, the electoral commission said Saturday.

In Tshwane, the metropolitan area that includes Pretoria, DA won 43 percent of the vote over the ANC’s 41 percent, according to final results in the elections that have underlined the declining popularity of the party that led the anti-apartheid struggle.

This defeat comes on top of the ANC conceding on Friday its loss in Port Elizabeth, a key battleground of the municipal election.

Defeat in Port Elizabeth was a humiliating blow for the ANC as the municipality is officially known as “Nelson Mandela Bay” in tribute to its past as a hotbed of anti-apartheid activism.

At the national level ANC remains the nation’s top party. However it is confronted by a significant drop in support after taking in less than 54 percent of votes, a plunge of eight points from 2011.

Turnout was about 58 percent as voters chose mayors and other local representatives responsible for hot-button issues including water, sanitation and power supplies.

Problems providing such basics trigger regular and sometimes violent “service delivery” protests in South Africa, where harsh socio-economic divisions remain a grim legacy of the apartheid era.

2 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    When you allow a cancer like Zuma to continue to fester with impunity for so long, this is what youi get.
    I guess south Africa has moved on.
    It’s no use crying over OLD MILK.

  • Author’s gravatar

    It is good news for the people of South Africa.
    First and foremost ANC was a liberation organization although it morphed into a political party that does not mean the country should be a one party state.
    Even if the South Africa have grown through similar experiences of the apartheid past the destiny of its people is by no means the same. Their different destinies as a people would be better served when they can express them through different political organizations.