JOHANNESBURG, (The Southern African Times) – The Electoral Commission of South Africa announced the 2021 Local Government Elections results on Thursday with the ruling party African National Congress (ANC) suffering big losses.
The national support for the ANC dropped from 53.91 percent in the 2016 elections to 46.04 percent this year, their lowest ever number in a democratic election. Major opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA)’s national support also declined from 26.9 percent to 21.84 percent. The other official opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) garnered a share of 10.42 percent.
Out of 213 municipalities, the ANC achieved a majority in 161 municipalities. The DA emerged with a majority in 13 municipalities. Coming in third was the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) with a majority in 10 municipalities.
In eight metropolitan municipalities, the DA won Cape Town, the ANC controlled Mangaung and Buffalo City. In the remaining five metros including economic hub Johannesburg and Tshwane where administrative capital Pretoria is located, no party won more than 50 percent of the votes.
Out of 26.1 million registered voters, only 12.3 million voted at the polls, according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa.
Addressing the announcement of the election results, President Cyril Ramaphosa said a record 325 political parties and nearly 95,000 candidates participated in the local government elections, of whom over 1,500 were independent candidates.
“This is a sign that multiparty politics is flourishing in South Africa, and that everyone has an equal chance and opportunity to run for public office,” he said.
